Our Newsletters
November 2024
Every five weeks FoodBank Lakeside provides 447 dispensas for 310 families. These bags of staple goods include oil, milk, rice, beans, eggs, tomato sauce, pasta, oatmeal, toilet paper, soap and detergent. Pet food is available to all families with pets, provided by Pet FoodBank. Two local businesses- the Chapala Surtidor de la Ribera and Antonio’s Abarrotes in San Antonio-prepare the despensas, ordering and bagging all of the items for distribution with no charge. Local volunteer teams which are a partnership between local Mexicans and foreign residents then deliver the goods to families in need in Santa Cruz, San Pedro, San Nicolas, Ajijic, Chapala, and Riberas. A family will receive either a small or a regular quantity of goods, depending on their needs. A small bag of dispensas costs $233.68 pesos, a regular bag is $378 pesos.
October 2024
One of the most endearing aspects of living Lakeside is experiencing what a caring and generous community this can be (by local and expat residents). Whether it is aiding victims of flooding or mudslides, rescuing animals or preparing and delivering food to those without proper resources, the good people of Lakeside will be there.
September 2024
CreSer came into being about four and a half years ago. Through hard work, commitment, and with a holistic vision, the organization has sustained some impressive initiatives. CreSer currently has five dining halls that prepare and provide daily meals to five hundred people in communities to the east of Ajijic and Chapala.
August 2024
FoodBank Lakeside is making a difference in the community, one meal at a time, thanks to its innovative Dine & Donate program. This initiative, which began with just a few restaurant partners, has grown to include nine participating eateries as of July 2024. Each of these restaurants has a simple yet powerful way for diners to contribute: a colorful table tent at every table implores, “You Can Help Beat Hunger.” For the price of an average meal, a donation can feed a hungry family of four for a month.
July 2024
If you wake up early on Monday morning and visit El Proyecto in San Antonio, you’ll meet Alicia sweeping the front sidewalk. She’ll welcome you into the kitchen to meet Doña Maria, the beloved jefa of the kitchen, and a friendly crew of women volunteering to prepare about 100 hot meals Monday through Friday.
June 2024
Martha Angelica Gutierrez works full-time at the Surtidor warehouse providing Foodbank Lakeside with the lowest possible prices on the best goods available and preparing those goods for distribution to the most needy in our communities. The recipients of those goods are carefully identified by local contacts in each community to ensure that they are indeed in need of support. Despensas (bags of food and goods) are distributed each month. Foodbank Lakeside also collaborates with programs that serve hot meals to children and that bring prepared meals to shut-ins, much like Meals on Wheels.
May 2024
In this issue, we embark on a journey through the present, the future, and the path that lies between. Just as every organism undergoes a life cycle in nature, organizations too evolve organically, from inception to maturity, and sometimes beyond.
April 2024
Happy Birthday Foodbank
Four years ago, amidst the depths of the Covid pandemic, volunteers initiated the distribution of food in Ajijic and San Antonio, catering to hundreds of individuals and families on the brink of starvation. Fast forward four years, and FoodBank Lakeside remains steadfast. Together, we are changing lives and making a difference.
March 2024
Evolution Of Hope: Tracking The Stories Of Program Recipients At FoodBank Lakeside
FoodBank Lakeside will celebrate its four-year anniversary of unwavering commitment to the community. As we near this significant milestone, we reflect on stories from the past, starting with profiles of some of the initial despensa recipients.
February 2024
Leticia Mendoza Jimenez is the abuela of one of these three-generation families receiving FBL despensas. As such she is key to her family’s functioning. Her small house, augmented with a “casita” made of mortarless stacked cinderblock and tarps, is home to Leticia, two daughters, a son-in-law, and 12 grandchildren.
January 2024 (2023 Annual Report)
It is with immense gratitude and a deep sense of purpose that we welcome you to the unveiling of FoodBank Lakeside’s 2023 annual report. This document stands not just as a testament to the financial accomplishments of the past year, but as a living narrative of the profound impact we’ve collectively made on the lives of those we serve.
December 2023
FoodBank Lakeside and CreSer Partners for a Mutually Beneficial Relationship
The deep and wide reaches of FoodBank Lakeside would not be possible without its community group partnerships. One such partner, CreSer, provides assistance to the local indigenous communities of Mezcala (20 kilometers/12 miles) and San Pedro Itzícan (27 kilometers/17 miles) east of Chapala. The primary goal of CreSer is to rebuild resilience and self-reliance in the communities it serves.
November 2023
Community Worker and Dynamo Opens New Food Kitchen
A new community kitchen has opened in the village of San Juan Tecomatlan, just east of Chapala, with the support of FoodBank Lakeside. The driving force behind the Comedor de Banco de la Ribera (Dining Room of FoodBank Lakeside) is Guillermina Siordia Patiño, who goes by the name of Guille
September 2023
Dalia Litzo receives but also gives in many ways
Dalia Litzo sees her inspiration every Friday. Her name is Layla, a 99-year-old friend and neighbor in San Antonio Tlayacapan who gets weekly help from Dalia at her home.
August 2023
Foodbank Lakeside Building Community Partnerships Part 2
Three days a week, volunteers with cars transport large pots of cooked food from the SAT kitchen to the Ajijic DIF (Desarollo Integral de la Familia, equivalent to child and family services).
July 2023
FoodBank Lakeside Building Community Partnerships Part 1
A partnership has been forged between FoodBank Lakeside and a community kitchen in San Antonio Tlayacapan (SAT) and the Ajijic DIF (Desarollo Integral de la Familia, equivalent to child and family services.
June 2023
Key FoodBank Lakeside Volunteer’s Wife Faces Medical Crisis
The wife of one of FoodBank Lakeside’s most stalwart and long-term volunteers is facing cancer and a malfunctioning heart, and we’re hoping to get her some help.
May 2023
Update: Son Now Attending College, Mom Still Gets By
A lot has changed since Paula Zuñiga and her son Rubben were featured in a FoodBank Lakeside website story “Families We Serve in Santa Cruz.” At the same time, much remains the same.
April 2023
No Bones About It – Tony’s Plus Carnieria Helps Youngsters Get Essential Protein
Tony Andalon, and his meat-cutting crew, have a bone to pick. Actually it is over 50 kg of bones every week that often fill up multiple clear plastic bags. Several, in fact. Maybe “50, 60 or more” kilograms of bones each week, filling “five, six, seven, sometimes 10” large, clear plastic bags.”
March 2023
FoodBank Lakeside 2022 in Review and a Look Forward to 2023
During 2022 FoodBank Lakeside was facing a changed world, still shaped by COVID, and coping with many other challenges. Still, the charitable organization and its donors met the needs of hundreds of Lakeside’s hungry.
Now what? Read More
February 2023
Ruling the Roost: Local Group Takes Hungry Children Under Their Wings
Birds of a feather flock together. Soon after they flew the coop (locating in Lakeside from elsewhere), they hatched their idea (no walking on eggshells for this group). And right now, they’re strutting their stuff for Poco a Poco and its top charitable partner, FoodBank Lakeside.
January 2023
Three Sisters Help Each Other Through Hard Times
The three Magallon sisters – María, Ofelia, and Marta – live in adjacent properties on a tidy and peaceful street in Chapala. Decades ago, this area was on the outskirts of town and was used as a dumping ground by the community, so the family was able to buy the land very cheaply and build houses there. The property was divided and shared among the three sisters when their parents died, and since then the suburbs of Chapala have grown around them.
December 2022
Fitting Memorial: Kids’ $20K Donation Honors Chris Hase
The last time Alaina Hase saw her father was at her wedding.
“I don’t think he was doing well then,” said Alaina, who was married last Feb. 20 in Canada. “I’m so incredibly grateful he could walk me down the aisle. It was so funny because, every time I spoke to him beforehand, I asked, ‘Okay, Dad, what’s going on with the outfit? I need to know what you’re wearing.’”
November 2022
From Recipient to Volunteer, He Now Helps Others
When COVID came, Rogelio Lopez could see the impending loss of his late-life career singing and playing live music at crowded events. Then, seeming to drive the point home, he got COVID himself.
“I got sick, and I was the sole provider for my family,” he said through an interpreter, recalling how the pandemic enveloped him several years ago. “So, someone recommended me for help from the food bank.”
October 2022
Couple Fills Children’s Minds at Kids Kitchens
Needy kids need more than food. They’re hungry to feed their minds with books and other inspirational, educational materials. Until recently, just two FoodBank Lakeside-supported Kids Kitchens offered children a lending library. Thanks to Lisa Beeman and Mark Rochon, now all six Kids Kitchens have a lending library – and much more.
September 2022
Dine and Donate: Feed Yourself, Feed a Family
FoodBank Lakeside’s Dine & Donate program has 14 restaurant partners (as of late August) where at each table a colorful table tent implores diners, “You Can Help Beat Hunger.” It notes that, for the price of an average meal, one can feed a hungry family of four for a month.
August 2022
Medical Issues Lead to Monetary Struggles, Foodbank Serves as a Lifeline
Many FoodBank Lakeside recipients suffer from chronic illness, and of those, diabetes is the most prevalent. The disease can cause heart problems, stroke, and nerve damage that can lead to blindness, amputation, and other problems.
July 2022
Insight – Who Is On FoodBank Lakeside’s Recipient List?
How do we connect with those in need? How do we actually determine who receives despensas? How do we know when a family is able to stop getting despensas?
June 2022
Holding On To Hope For The Future
Victor, age 12, is a slender boy with a shy smile and mop of tousled hair. It’s hard to believe, when watching him play with his little dog, that throughout his childhood he has needed complicated medical care due to a spinal condition.
May 2022
A Lifeline For Our Elderly Neighbors
It’s 10 AM on one of Foodbank Lakeside’s despensa distribution days in Chapala. A line is forming outside the bodega where the distribution takes place.
Many of the people in line are those in “la tercera edad” or “the third age” as they say in Mexico – those who are 60+ years old. These are people who’ve worked hard all their lives, who have raised families and contributed to the community, but now, because of illness, injury, or the problems of aging, are unable to continue in their jobs or cover their monthly expenses.
April 2022
FoodBank Lakeside – Past – Present – Future
I’d like to take you on a little journey. It’s one that you, our amazing donor community, have actually been traveling with us over the last two years. Allow me to guide you on a brief trip down memory lane; make a stop in the present day and give you a glimpse of the road ahead.
March 2022
“I See The Difference That FoodBank Lakeside Makes In People’s Lives!”
Feliza Ornelas Ruíz is FBL’s local coordinator for San Antonio Tlayacapan and Riberas del Pilar. Feliza is a lifelong resident of San Antonio and is well acquainted with the people who live there and the issues they face.
February 2022
Wheelchair Naranja o Negra
Everyone had been looking forward to this day with great anticipation, especially Juan de Dio Jacobo Gonzalez. It was the day he would receive his new wheelchair.
January 2022
The Children Came Running With Big Smiles On Their Faces
The Posada is an important Christmas tradition in Mexico. It is a strong part of family Christmas celebrations filled with cheerful atmospheres, socializing amongst family and friend, delicious food and lots of fun!
December 2021
Grand Opening of Two New Kids Kitchens in San Pedro Itzicán
Many dozens of children in La Peña and San Pedro Itzicán, small indigenous villages east of Chapala, no longer line up and then sit on a dirt patch to have lunch. And they no longer worry about the rain or a hot sun while they eat.
November 2021
Ojo de Agua Kid´s Kitchen
Ojo de Agua is a very small community located east of Chapala, just before Mezcala. The Kids Kitchen established in this small village has become a foundation from which we are now able to support Poco a Poco .
October 2021
It´s Not Always COVID
As a community we have become so COVID focused that is easy to forget the many other medical conditions that can lead to the need for food assistance.
September 2021
Good News from Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz de la Soledad is a small town (population approximately 1700) located along the road to Mezcala, that is part of the Chapala municipality and therefore served by the FoodBank program.
August 2021
How We Determine Dispensa Distributions
How do we connect with those in need? How do we actually determine who receives despensas? How do we know when a family is able to stop getting despensas?
July 2021
Wheelchair Project – Share The Love
Last month FoodBank Lakeside was honored to be a part of something very special. We were invited along with Chapala Sunrise Rotary to locate people in the Chapala community who would benefit from a donation of brand new wheelchairs from an organization in Florida called Chair The Love.
June 2021
Neighbors Helping Neighbors in Ajijic
On the lovely Ajijic plaza, there is a Pollería, a shop that sells fresh chicken, run by a charming woman named Monica. Once a month, on Wednesdays, Foodbank Lakeside uses Monica’s chicken shop to distribute Ajijic despensas.
May 2021
Despensa Day in Chapala
On a typical bustling Wednesday morning in Chapala, at a Surtido store, you will find the Foodbank Lakeside Chapala Local Coordinator, Sandra Arceli Flores Martinez, busy organizing a weekly despensa distribution.
April 2021
FoodBank Birthday Celebration
This month in celebrating our one year anniversary’ we would like to share our Founder’s Story with you..
March 2021
Working Poverty in San Antonio
If you visit the charming square of San Antonio, there are many endearing sights and sounds familiar to a Mexican plaza: flowers blooming, children playing, dogs barking, the smell of a nearby taco stand, women shopping or neighbors catching up on news and gossip.
February 2021
Food Poverty with Dr. Bea
Dr. Beatriz Gallagher (Dr. Bea) is well known amongst Lakeside residents. Born in Mexico, educated in the USA with advanced degrees in nutrition, Chinese Medicine, and Integrative Medicine, she has broad experience consulting with both Lakeside residents and poor populations east of Chapala. We recently spoke with Dr. Bea about food poverty east of Chapala.
January 2021
Nine Months And 12,358 Despensas!
2020 was certainly a year of unexpected change that created struggles globally and here in our Lakeside community. Thanks to our generous donors, Foodbank Lakeside has had the privilege of helping our neighbors suffering from food poverty for the past nine months. During that time we have delivered 12,358 despensas!