November 2026
Food insecurity affects families across the Lakeside region every day, and FoodBank Lakeside continues to respond with consistent, community-driven support. Each month, FoodBank Lakeside provides 597 despensas to families and individuals across nine communities, including San Pedro, Riberas del Pilar/San Antonio Tlayacapan, Chapala, Santa Cruz de la Soledad, San Nicolás de Ibarra, Ajijic, San Juan Tecomatlán, Tlachichilco, and Ojo de Agua.
In partnership with CreSer and El Proyecto, an additional 7,765 meals are provided every month to children, families, and older adults throughout the region.
These numbers represent more than food distribution—they reflect strengthened community partnerships, improved access to nutrition, and
ongoing support for families facing economic hardship. FoodBank Lakeside remains committed to ensuring that no one in our communities has to face hunger alone.
Extreme Poverty in Mexico
By
According to CONEVAL, Mexico’s National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy, extreme poverty in Mexico is defined as individuals whose monthly income is below the cost of a basic food basket*: $1,910.78 pesos/month for individuals living in rural areas or $2,562.58 pesos/month living in urban areas (populations of 2,500 or more) and who lack three or more social deprivations: access to education, health services, social security, quality housing, basic home utilities and adequate nutrition.
Education – Children ages 3-15 do not attend school; those born before 1982 did not complete primary school; those born in 1982 or later did not complete middle school.
Health Services – Not enrolled in or entitled to any public health institutional or private health care without severe out-of-pocket costs; employed but not receiving required job benefits like retirement pensions, disability benefits or medical care through their employer; not employed with no pension or are not a direct beneficiary of an immediate family member who has a social security network.
Quality Housing – Floors are dirt; roof and/or walls are temporary; 2.5 or more persons per room.
Basic Home Utilities – Running water not piped in; house not connected to sewer; no access to the electric grid; cook with wood or charcoal without a functional exhaust system.
Adequate Nutrition – Lack of food means members of the household regularly
reduce portions, skip meals or go hungry for a full day.
*CONEVAL defines a basic food basket (canasta alimentaria) as containing 24-45 items including corn tortillas, rice, beans, eggs, milk, chicken, beef, bread, oil and seasonal vegetables. The cost of a basic food basket has increased 4.5% over the last year, outpacing the overall inflation rate of 3.3% for Mexico.
Across Mexico moderate poverty rates have decreased significantly in the last few years from over 40% to 29.6%, but the extreme poverty rates have only decreased slightly from 6% to 5.3%. (The moderate poverty rates have been lowered primarily by increases in the minimum wage and raises in old age pensions.)
The same source puts Jalisco’s moderate and extreme poverty rates at 17.3% and 1.3%, respectively. For Chapala the rates are significantly higher: 31.1% and 4.47% respectively.
Both the minimum wage and old-age pension more than doubled during AMLO’s and Sheinbaum’s tenures as president.
The current minimum wage in most of Mexico is $315.04 pesos per day (roughly $9,451 to $9,582 pesos per month).and is slightly higher in northern border states. The current old-age pension is $3,200 pesos/month or $38,400 pesos/year.
Everyone Can Give: Conversation at the Table
A Living Memorial: Keeping Leslie’s Love of Giving Alive
By Jeanne Louise Riether
On the day before what would have been Leslie Rogers’ 76th birthday, her husband Mike sat down to remember her. His calendar was full: Tai Chi in the morning, errands, and an afternoon rehearsal at Lakeside Little Theater. Still, he made time to talk about the woman he describes as “terrific.”
For Leslie, caring for people often began with food. A registered dietitian, she spent much of her career working in food service at the Veterans Administration. But she first studied dietetics, Mike says, “to feed her family.” Food was her way of expressing comfort and love.
When they began dating in 1990, she invited him to dinner and announced that she
was making meatloaf, a dish he insisted he did not like. “She said, ‘The one rule I have is that you eat what’s put in front of you, and if you don’t like that, there’s peanut butter and bread,’” Mike recalls. One bite of her wonderful cooking changed his mind. “Meatloaf eventually became my favorite meal.”
Leslie’s concern for others shaped how they both chose to give. While Leslie was still alive, the two came to see FoodBank Lakeside as a place where their generosity could make a meaningful difference. Learning that the organization serves communities from Ajijic and Chapala to San Nicolás and as far as Mezcala – places they had seen for themselves – helped bring its work close to home.
“She really thought this was the right place to send money,” Mike says. They began making a monthly donation of $100, supporting an organization whose work reflected Leslie’s belief in caring for people by ensuring that families have food on their tables.
After Leslie died, Mike kept her commitment alive by making a substantial donation to FoodBank Lakeside in her memory, offering to match contributions from other donors. It was more than a gift in her name. It was an opportunity for others to join in supporting something Leslie had cared about deeply, multiplying the impact of their generosity.
A matching memorial gift turns remembrance into action. It honors a loved one while inviting others to carry forward the values that mattered to them. In Leslie’s case, every contribution inspired by Mike’s matching gift helps continue the work of feeding people in the communities she and Mike came to care about. He hopes to be able to do it again.
The night before she died, Leslie made it clear that she wanted Mike to “keep living, keep meeting new people, do new things.” About a year later, he took those words to heart. He adopted a dog, took an acting class, and soon won a role in Something Rotten, which, he says, “created a new family for me.” Today he is rehearsing Regrets Only, which opens November 6, and singing with Las Voces del Lago as the group prepares for its Christmas concert.
After they first retired, Mike and Leslie set out to travel the world to see where they wanted to spend their final years. They visited several countries and different places in Mexico, but Ajijic spoke to Leslie. Through FoodBank Lakeside, the generosity and love she shared during her lifetime continues to nourish the community she made her own. And through Mike’s matching donation fund and the generosity of those who responded to it, her concern for others continues to make a difference.
Learn more about how to make a memorial gift to FoodBank Lakeside at https://foodbanklakeside.org/gift-from-the-heart/. You can also personally contribute to our efforts into the future by remembering FoodBank Lakeside in your own estate plans – more information can be found at https://foodbanklakeside.org/legacy-giving/.
Dine and Donate
Featured Restaurants
By Marlowe Wylson
We are excited to introduce something new to our Dine and Donate program!
Dine and Donate is the restaurant program that encourages patrons to donate cash to FoodBank Lakeside. We provide tabletop signs and donation envelopes to participating Lakeside restaurants.
Beginning this month, we will be highlighting two of our participating restaurants.
From October thru April two restaurants will be selected at random to be featured in our newsletter.
Each month we will share information about the restaurant we select, including their menu, some photos and some comments from the management so that you can get to know a little about the people and places that are part of our Dine and Donate community.
We hope this gives you an opportunity to discover a restaurant you may not have tried before, or perhaps reminds you to return to one you already enjoy.
Most importantly, we hope you’ll consider stopping in, enjoying a meal, and showing your appreciation. Every time you choose to dine at one of our participating restaurants, you help support the local businesses that make our community so special.
So without further ado…
Here are this month’s featured restaurants!
Casa Lule
Ocampo 180, Ajijic
Phone: +52 376 109 1202, WhatsApp: +52 81 1487 6192
Email: casa.lule.restaurante@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/casa.lule.restaurant
https://www.instagram.com/casa.lule
Our visit to Casa Lule was truly amazing! The restaurant is lovely and the gardens surrounding the dining area are so tropical and beautiful. We had a delicious lunch
and enjoyed chatting with Marco Aceves Lule, who is not only he
owner but also the chef.
Born and raised in Chicago, Marco moved to Mexico to study the art of cooking. In the meantime, his parents bought a piece of property at Ocampo 180 and built a beautiful home there. Marco honed his skills as a chef, and two years ago new plans were put in motion.
A new house was built next door to where his parents now reside and the older home was transformed into Casa Lule. It’s a great place for an event or just a quiet lunch or dinner. All the staff are warm and friendly, and the table service is first class.
Único Restaurante & Bar
Hidalgo 160, on the Carretera next to Café Negro in San Antonio
Phone/WhatsApp: +52 33 2048 7425
https://www.facebook.com/unicorestaurantebar
https://www.instagram.com/unicorestaurantebar
Único was a bit of a surprise! I did not know the history of this restaurant and neither did I know about the wide variety of delicious food they have on offer. This is a family-owned restaurant with responsibilities shared between Diego and Emiliano
Kabande and their father Anwar. Anwar’s brother, Fernando Kabande, used to have Kamellos Food Truck, and now sells Arabic food delivered to your home (332-022-2316).
We had two desserts: pecan and date pie, and a very large piece of baklava. Both were amazing. Diego was very attentive and happy to talk with us about the family and how much they enjoy providing great food to their guests. This wonderful young man is very committed to Dine and Donate and offered several times to help out any way he could.
We hope you will give both these restaurants a try and we thank you for being an active participant in the Dine and Donate program!
NEWS AND HAPPENINGS
Francisca: A retrospective
By Steve Motenko
We were in the middle of our despensa route last month when our delivery partner, Javier Carranza, leaned his forearms on our car door frame and in a somber voice said, “Tengo que decirles que Francisca falleció.”
My jaw dropped. Karen turned toward me with a questioning look. I hesitated, as if I could protect her from finding out … and then I translated for her: Francisca has died.
Karen burst out in sobs. Etta, our granddaughter who accompanies us on despensa runs on days off school, began to cry too. Even Javier struggled to keep his emotions in.
Since June of 2020, two months after FoodBank Lakeside was founded, Karen and I (and occasionally Etta) have delivered despensas (large bags of food) monthly in Santa Cruz de la Soledad, the town just east of Chapala. We serve a lot of elderly people on our route, of course. And elderly people die. It’s a hazard of the work we do. You’re shocked; you’re sad; and you move on.
But Francisca was different.
She looked to be about 100. More wrinkles than a Shar-Pei. But a beautiful face, a radiant face, a face that seemed lit from within. And a quality of energy that seemed more of a 19-year-old than a 90-year-old.
Each time we dropped off her despensa and her cat food – if Francisca was not sick or napping – she greeted us with an effusiveness that left us breathless. She’d come right up close and speak to us rapid-fire, as if sharing a contact high, while not really understanding that our Spanish is just … not … that … good. I’d do what I often do when our recipients say more than “¡Muchas gracias! ¡Dios les bendiga” to us: I turn to Javier. He doesn’t speak English either, but after six years working together, he is a master at “translating” from fast Spanish to slow Spanish for me.
Like most of our recipients, Francisca’s home was tidy but quite modest, basic. She owned little. And yet she would often have a present for us. She’d give Karen clippings from her lush garden. Each Christmas she crafted us a beautifully hand-embroidered doily, or tissue-box cover or the like. Francisca personified the spirit of giving, year round.
She especially took to Etta. Etta, 12, has known Francisco since she was 8. Francisca would wrap her arms around her, literally and figuratively. She kept the drawing Etta made for her when she was 9. Francisca would give Etta sage life advice. The last time Etta saw her, a few months ago, she held Etta’s hands (see photo), looked deep into her eyes, and told her to find a rich husband.
Writing this is therapy for me. When you’ve known someone like Francisca, you want to share her with the world. But how do you share someone whose energy can’t be captured in words? Or maybe it can. Joie de vivre. She embodied it.
“Some people have a way of touching your heart,” Karen said when I asked her for her thoughts on this piece. “I don’t know if you can quantify that. She lit up when she saw us.” And in so doing, she lit us up too.
Descansa en paz, amiga. You will not be forgotten. May those you touched carry your torch.
Thanks for coming to the Kermes!
Many thanks to all who attended the Kermes on September 16. We hope you all had a wonderful time, and please know that your help is appreciated so much by the recipients and their families.
Oh Wait, There’s Another One?!
Indeed! If you missed the September Kermes or are hoping to repeat the fun and have more delicious food, another Kermes is coming in October to help out more of our community members. Details to come – please check our Facebook page (and follow us!) for details.