Create Hope: Feeding Coastal Families in Ecuador

At our most recent community roundtable on chronic childhood malnutrition, we learned that the rate in our area has dropped by nearly two full percentage points. Here, each percentage point represents approximately 25 babies or young children under the age of two. That means roughly 50 children are now moving in a healthier direction.

Most of the babies who have improved are part of Manglaralto Giving’s Semillas program, where your monthly support provides families with nutritious food and the ongoing support they need. But, we're working alongside two other food bank programs to be able to cover more communities in the parish of Manglaralto. Together, these three organizations are making a measurable difference in the health of children across our area.

And the impact goes beyond the babies themselves.

When a mother receives nutritious food while she is breastfeeding, she is better nourished—and that benefits her baby, too. When a woman has good nutrition during pregnancy, her baby has a better chance of being born healthy and avoiding malnutrition from the very beginning.

Today, 60 families in our Manglaralto Giving food bank program are caring for children affected by chronic childhood malnutrition, and we are seeing encouraging progress.

One thing we want our donors to know is that families are not meant to remain in our food bank forever. As their circumstances improve and their children reach healthy milestones, move out of the danger zone for weight and growth, they graduate from the program. We then use those openings to welcome new families whose children are facing malnutrition and need that same support.

So while the number of families we serve may remain fairly consistent, the families themselves change as children get healthier and new needs arise. That means your ongoing support is helping one family today—and, over time, will help many different families get their children onto a healthier path.

Your recurring monthly gift is a quiet but powerful part of that progress. Because you continue to give month after month, we can continue putting nutritious food into the hands of mothers and children who need it—not just for one month, but for as long as they need us.

Join us to continue this valuable work. Every bag of food, every healthier mother, every growing baby, and every percentage point of improvement represents people in our community whose lives are changing.