When the pandemic hit, my wife Karen and I felt lucky. Sure we had to “shelter in place” for a while. (Remember that phrase? Seems like years ago.) But we had retirement income. We’d do okay.
But what was distressingly obvious to us was that most locals were not so lucky. Innumerable Lakeside businesses and restaurants, with virtually no advance notice, had to close their doors. Karen and I immediately started wondering – and worrying – about what the folks who worked in these businesses would do to feed their families. We couldn’t imagine they had much in the way of rainy-day savings, and the Mexican government is not known for its social safety nets. How would these families survive?
The wondering and worrying morphed into a desire to help. But help with what? The obvious answer was food. What could we do to help feed these families, now unemployed through no fault of their own?
It was around then – April – that we started hearing great things about a new organization called Foodbank Lakeside. There was an article in the Guadalajara Reporter. There were references from friends who had heard about what Foodbank was doing, and how donations were being funneled directly to needy families.
Okay, we thought, that sounds like a great way to make a difference – and right here in our community, our adopted home. So we looked them up. And we donated. And we felt so good about it. Before you actually donate, it’s easy to underestimate how great you’re going to feel when you realize your donation will provide a meal for dozens of families in need (or dozens of meals for a family in need), families that might not otherwise know where their next meal is coming from.
And on the donation page, we noticed an invitation to volunteer for Foodbank Lakeside. Hmm. So – contributing not just money, but actual time and energy to feed needy families? Well, it wasn’t like we had a lot else to do, since most of our regular activities had been kiboshed by the pandemic. And we had been looking for the right volunteer endeavor ever since we moved to Lakeside three years ago. This, we were convinced, was it.
Long story short, Karen and I now spend 2½ hours on Thursday afternoons delivering food supplies and other staples to the elderly, the ill, and the out-of-work in the small town of Santa Cruz de la Soledad, just northeast of Chapala. We work with our local Mexican partners, Javier and Juanita, who volunteer their time, out of the goodness of their hearts, to help their neighbors in need.
The work we do is, in the words of one of our partners, both heartbreaking and heartwarming. Heartbreaking because of the conditions many Santa Cruz residents live in, and because of the conditions some suffer with. There’s a bright-eyed little girl with leukemia. Another one with a brain tumor. And how do they afford medical care? Their neighbors chip in. This is a town where the Foodbank Lakeside motto, “Neighbors helping neighbors,” is not just a saying but a way of life.
But the work is truly more heartwarming than heartbreaking. The smiles that light up the faces of everyone we deliver to, the children who run out to greet us, the street dogs that seem to wag their entire bodies when we approach (Disclaimer: we arrive armed with doggie biscuits, and after six months, oh yeah they remember us).
Our Thursday afternoons are the highlight of our week. Every week we find One Big Takeaway. Maybe it’s a conversation with bright-eyed, effervescent 87-year-old Francisca about her amazing garden. Or maybe it’s the “Gracias” out of the mouth of a 3-year-old. Or maybe it’s that new litter of puppies falling all over each other to wiggle up to us. This work is the best thing we’ve done in a very long time.
Which is why it’s so sad that we might not be able to do it much longer. Sadder still that those lovely people we see each week who clearly so need this support might no longer receive it. After a flurry of donations in the early stages of the pandemic, contributions to Foodbank Lakeside have been drying up. Maybe it’s donation fatigue, we don’t know. Maybe it’s the feeling that with businesses reopened (even partially), the needs have disappeared. They haven’t. And with Covid intensifying now everywhere, the needs will only increase in the short term.
Foodbank Lakeside was originally created to fill the gaps created by Covid-related unemployment. Some of that has indeed eased; many have gone back to work and been taken off the rolls of our despensa deliveries. But there will always be needy in our area. There will be those with sudden and devastating medical issues. There will be elderly without any family to help. (For its equivalent of Social Security, the Mexican government provides a paltry amount.)
We gringos have flooded into this paradise unbidden by those who have called it home for generations. We have provided employment, yes, but we have driven up prices. We have expanded upon the rich culture here, but we have strained the infrastructure. How will we leave Lakeside better than we found it?
Karen and I urge you to consider an ongoing monthly amount, no matter how small. It only takes 200 pesos — $10 US – to feed a family of four for up to two weeks. What is it worth to you to know that every week, you are part of the solution for local families in need? For Karen and me, it’s simply invaluable.
