A Milestone, of sorts

The number of feeding centers we supply continues to grow. Recently we discovered that the total number of centers under our auspices has exceeded 100! This number represents approximately 7,500 children.

Just so you know just what we're talking about, our family isn't actually running these centers. They are run by many pastors throughout a large part of western Honduras (some pastors run more than one center). These pastors organize the centers, pick up the food from us, oversee the cooking of the food, acquire adequate cooking fuel and other supplies (like cooking pots, plates and such), teach a Bible lesson at each gathering, and keep records for us of the number of children being fed, number of times meals are served each week, etc.



Our family uses the funds from our donors to pay for the shipping and customs to get the donated food to Honduras. This food costs us just over 1 cent per meal. (Here's some information about the food we supply to the feeding centers.) We keep records on each center, to maintain some level of accountability over the whole program, and we distribute enough food for a few months at a time to each center, based on the number of children being fed. We visit the centers on an occasional basis, getting pictures to help our donors see how they are blessing the people of Honduras (our visits are also part of our work of keeping everyone involved accountable).

I have to say, though, that having 100 (now more like 110) feeding centers isn't a milestone we've been striving to achieve. Sadly, the need for additional feeding centers is a result of increasing poverty in the mountains of western Honduras - an area which was already massively poor. We'd much prefer to see the need for feeding centers go down, instead of seeing the rising need for the nutritional help.



For now, we're just grateful that we still have the means to help. Our thanks - and the thanks of many in this part of Honduras - goes out to everyone who plays a part in this ministry!