2006 NEWS FROM PLENTY AUSTIN &
PLENTY INTERNATIONAL

Plenty Austin


Plenty Austin is a chapter of Plenty International and was started in 1995 by individuals who want to support the efforts of economically disenfranchised peoples in addressing housing, health care, food security and other basic needs. Individuals volunteer their time and donate financial and other material resources to assist women's groups, indigenous communities, farming families, non-profit and other grass roots organizations implement a variety of community development, and more recently, emergency relief programs.

Since 1995 Plenty Austin representatives have provided technical and/or helped secure material assistance for:

Plenty Austin representatives have also provided counseling, information and referral, and material assistance for recent immigrants from Central America who are attempting to live in Texas.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTACT PLENTY AUSTIN REPRESENTATIVES:

Karen and Thomas Heikkala @ 512-462-1486; or tomas_heikkala@yahoo.com
Chuck Haren and Casta Calderon @ 512-206-6139; or chuckcasta@yahoo.com

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New Initiatives

Maya Children’s Scholarships (Becas)

In January Plenty received a designated donation from Jeremy Sherman (former volunteer and board member), to help 20 primary students living in Solola, Guatemala pay for books, writing materials, school/class fees or other small material things they needed in order to attend school this year. Asociacion Desarrollo Integral de Belen (ADIBE) requested the support on behalf of ecopnomically disenfranchised families and local teachers, and is managing the “Becas” program. Students receiving the material assistance are selected by a committee made up of teachers and members of ADIBE’s board of directors. Recipients are children who would not have otherwise been able to attend school this year, and who the committee believes are in need and deserving of support to help them stay in school. Most of the students selected have only one parent, who is not able to meet all of their family’s basic needs. Some of the children’s families lost everything when hurricane Stan struck Solola very hard in October of 2005. Each student/family grantee receives an average of $80. worth of very carefully targeted material assistance, it cost an additional $20 per student to manage the purchasing, distribution and accounting for the Becas program.

CAFSI Encuentro 2006

Plenty Austin representatives worked closely with Soynica and all Central American Food Security Initiative (CAFSI) partners to complete a week-long series of education workshops and meetings in Esteli and Managua, Nicaragua. The Encuentro was organized to help participants improve their soy food processing and nutrition education activities, and encourage communication and cooperation among grass roots organizations working to address food security issues.  Representatives from Plenty and each of the community organizations we are working with, Centro Huichol in Mexico, ADIBE & UPAVIM in Guatemala, and Soynica in Nicaragua, met in Nicaragua from June 4th through June 9th. Soynica and ADIBE have been managing their soy processing and community education activities for many years while UPAVIM and the Huichol Center started similar programs in their communities during 2005. ADIBE-Maya and Centro Huichol are indigenous community based non-profit organizations. UPAVIM and Soynica are non-profit women’s led organizations.

We are happy to report all Encuentro participants told us at the end of the sessions that they had learned things which would help them advance their unique food and nutrition education programs. Each of the organizations represented is providing vital services in the areas of education, health care, employment and small business development. The Encuentro workshops, meetings and field trips allowed participants to exchange information and improve their knowledge and skills related to:

Twenty people from Guatemala, Mexico and Nicaragua, plus two Plenty Austin representatives participated in the CAFSI Encuentro 2006. Participants very much appreciated, and effectively used, their opportunity to spend a few days exchanging ideas and knowledge with people from other cultures and communities who are facing similar issues while working to advance their small business development and community education services. For several of the attendees, the CAFSI Encuentro 2006 afforded them a first opportunity to travel out of their own communities and country. Contributions from the Trull Foundation and Seeds of Justice made it possible for Plenty and CAFSI partners to organize and complete the meetings and education activities.

(Insert 3-4 photos – group photo, workshop photos)

Village Model Food and Nutrition Program

Plenty is working with its friends in Solola, Guatemala, Asociacion Desarrollo Integral de Belen (ADIBE) in responding to requests for information and assistance from people who want to know more about the uses of soy foods and nutrition needs of their children. ADIBE is an indigenous Maya community based organization serving people living in Solola and the surrounding area. With assistance of an award from the Rudolph Futer Fund, through the Monterey Peninsula Community Foundation in California, Plenty and ADIBE were able to initiate a “Village Model Food and Nutrition Program” in December of 2005.

Plenty representatives from Austin and Tennessee have helped ADIBE staff to develop soy production, home processing and general nutrition education materials. ADIBE is using these materials to help women and men attending the workshops, classes and home demonstrations to better understand the nutrition needs of children, and to learn methods of integrating use of soy foods within traditional meals and cultural practices. The goal of the project is to help economically disenfranchised communities improve their access to high nutrient low cost foods and address long term food security issues. A series of 60 community-based education activities are being carried out in 12 rural communities located in the Department of Solola.

(Insert photos – San Bartolo Women’s Association, Columbia group,
ADIBE)

Continuing Program Update: Central American Food Security Initiative (CAFSI)

Over the past three years Plenty Austin representatives have worked on-site with partners from four organizations in Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua, supporting efforts to develop or improve their unique soy food processing, marketing and nutrition education programs. Each of Plenty’s partners are working to make their food processing and marketing activities sustainable, while at the same time providing nutrition education, health care, advocacy and other services for people living in their communities.

During August of this year, staff at the Huichol Center in Huejuquilla Mexico were assisted by Plenty representatives in designing, purchasing and learning to use small scale soy milk extraction and bottle filling equipment. The Huichols were also assisted in locating and purchasing organic vegetable and legume seeds, which they are distributing to help150-200 economically disenfranchised families address food and nutrition needs. Plenty and the Atkinson Foundation have provided resources to help Centro Huichol advance their community service initiatives. In October of this year Louise Hagler will be working again with our friends at Centro Huichol, helping them to improve processing and marketing skills, and carry out nutrition education activities in the area.

In January, April and May of this year Chuck and Casta worked with the women at Unidas Para Vivir Mejor (UPAVIM – United to Live Better), located in one of the most economically depressed barrios of Guatemala City. Casta conducted three workshops with the women to help increase understanding of the daily nutrition needs of children. Women cooking daily meals for the 150+ children attending pre and primary schools, and those managing UPAVIM’s soy food processing and marketing small business, worked with Casta, improving their ability to include use of soy milk, flour, cheese and masa (okara) within traditional foods and meals. Chuck worked with the women in the processing room, helping to identify and locate much needed equipment, advance marketing skills and improve their food processing and quality control procedures. Plenty representative Louise Hagler also worked with the folks at UPAVIM in January, helping them learn how to make soy yogurt, improve recipes for their soy masa or okara products, and develop a recipe pamphlet for easy reference.

Solola is situated in the highlands of Guatemala about 7,500 feet above sea level. It is one of the major cultural and commercial centers for the Maya people. Plenty representatives were on-site with ADIBE staff during January, April and May of this year. Casta worked with ADIBE’s administrator to improve accounting procedures. Louise worked with staff managing the soy food processing center, helping them learn how to make yogurt, develop a soy sausage recipe with the masa (okara) remaining from the milk making process, and improve quality control skills. Chuck helped our friends there to identify needs and secure equipment that ADIBE will use to improve tofu making, soy milk pasteurizing, bottling and pre-cooling procedures. This year Plenty also donated $4,300 to help ADIBE conduct education workshops for staff and board members, and secure a matching grant from Helvetas (an EU non-profit organization). Funding from Helvetas is being used to purchase equipment needed to improve quality of products and production capacity at the community owned food processing center.

In Managua, Nicaragua Plenty continued to provide technical assistance for the non-profit organization Soynica. Over the past 16 years this women’s organization has been a leader in bringing education, food supplementation, small business development and micro lending programs to several thousand of the most economically disadvantaged women and families in the country. During March, April and June Plenty Austin representatives worked with staff at Soynica’s small food processing business called “Nutrem”, to design and install a water chilling and storage system that will help to pre-cool and improve the quality of their soy milk products. Plenty’s representative also worked with Nutrem staff to design, have built and learn operating procedures for a pneumatic press used in making soy cheese products. Nutrem produces and distributes more than 40,000 half-liter units of flavored soy milk and a few thousand pounds of tofu and dry cereal products each month. The cost of their soy milk to the consumer is 25 cents per half liter!!

((Insert photos of – UPAVIM, Huichol, Soynica, ADIBE food processors with equipment))

Guatemala Hurricane Relief

In October of 2005 Hurricane Stan, with flooding and landslides that followed, devastated many communities in Guatemala. One of the most severely affected areas was the Department of Solola near Lake Atitlan. More than a thousand people died and tens of thousands lost their homes, jobs, subsistence crops of corn, beans and vegetables, and the means to provide for their family’s needs. Ten months later thousands of parents in Solola continue the difficult struggle to put food on the table for their children, rebuild homes, repair roads, schools, water systems and clinics, and at the same time meet the costs of health care and sending their children to school.

From November of last year through March of this year Plenty and the Onaway Trust teamed up with Asociacion Desarrollo Integral de Belen (ADIBE) to distribute black beans, corn-soy dry cereal drink mixes, soy cheese, and ice cream treats to hundreds of families left without food after the hurricane. In April of this year the same team of organizations provided funding and technical assistance to help a large primary school in the village of Piedras Blancas purchase new desks and classroom supplies, and to completely rebuild the severely damaged school roof.

In cooperation with its Guatemalan partners, Plenty will continue to accept donations and channel much need basic resources to children and parents who are continuing their efforts to recuperate from Hurricane Stan. Since the hurricane hit, many parents and young adults have not yet recovered from the loss of their subsistence crops and jobs. We are seeing that, due to loss of income and food supplies, money is very scarce, and larger numbers of families are needing financial assistance to help their children stay in school. The cost of helping one Maya child secure books, materials and clothes they need to remain in primary or secondary school for one year is about $100.

(Insert photo of people receiving food and school equipment or roof)

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTACT PLENTY AUSTIN REPRESENTATIVES:

Karen and Thomas Heikkala @ 512-462-1486; or tomas_heikkala@yahoo.com
Chuck Haren and Casta Calderon @ 512-206-6139; or chuckcasta@yahoo.com