Food creativity: healthier families in Guatemala

This is our summer special report, where peaches are in full eating mode. As we are following the peach seasonality of our reports, thank you for reading this one!

We are incredibly grateful to have had the support of so many people during the July Bonus Day, that we fundraised over USD 1,000! From Asia, Latin America and North America, we couldn't be happier, given this was the first Bonus Day we engaged in deeply. Thank you to all!

• Peaches in Elementary School in Concepcion Pinula

As one of the Bonus Day special, we had indicated that we would deliver 200 peaches for children. And that is exactly what we did! Celeste and Fernando took 300 peaches for 240 students to the elementary school in Concepcion Pinula, where they delivered brilliant programs: the students received a workshop on the food value of peaches and also made crafts making their version of peaches with lots of color. We are grateful for the afternoon period School Principal, and hope this is the beginning of many more activities to engage students in Concepcion with food transformation. 

• Peaches in allied Restaurants in Guatemala

As part of our outreach strategy with the gastronomy sector to continue supporting our cause through education and peaches, two allied restaurants, L'Apero (one of the top Pizza restaurants in the world) and Miettes (renowned bakery in Guatemala) offered in their menu peach pizza toppings and also baked good with peaches. We hope to continue securing restaurant partners to expand on this here in Guatemala, and continue supporting through peaches, scaling in Concepcion Pinula. 

• Expo Osaka - Guatemala National Day

We were invited to attend Guatemalan National Day during the Expo Osaka in June 2025. There we met with the current President of Guatemala, official delegation, the Tourism Director, and the Presidency's Press Secretary and many more Guatemalans living in Japan, and also Japan and UK government officials who had served previously in Guatemala too. 

Moreover, we also attended a private dinner hosted by INGUAT where our two friend chefs cooked that night, our dear Pablo and Nestor, who have previously collaborated with Wa'ik years back. There we had the opportunity to meet Japanese companies to expand our work in clean cooking in Concepcion Pinula.

• Expo Osaka - Food Week

After a rigorous selection process, we were invited to the session: "Food the next frontier in health innovation" at the Netherlands Pavilion during the Food Week at the World Expo in Osaka. Here we met with many Japanese food manufacturers, from Yakult to Meiji, to Glico, and learnt new ways of improving gut health. We also toured the Pavilion, which was so enchanting. We also returned to the UK Pavilion to meet with our friends there, especially Pix!

We also visited the Palestinian Pavilion, given the moment food deliveries and people and families were targeted. We spoke with the team there, and saw how the pavilion spoke about the Olive tree, the Holy Land, and much a sense of peace.

• UN Food Systems Summit Stocktake+4 in Addis Ababa

In July, we participated in the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) Stocktake+4 in Addis Ababa, in the UNECA HQ. This was a truly special moment because four years ago we did an independent dialogue for the UNFSS "The Dialogue of the Tortilla" as we call it. There we had the opportunity to connect back with so many wonderful colleagues and friends within the food systems, continue to know more, and bring us back together in a moment so different from 4 years back. Here we had the opportunity to speak at the Indigenous led session about our Dialogue, the work we do in Guatemala, corn and turning the tortilla around.

One great highlight was to meet again the Director of WFP,  the UN Secretary Deputy Director, and Special Food Envoy, and many Presidents from numerous African countries, to get to know that side of the world. Moreover, one of our goals was to meet with the National delegation of Guatemala, where we did speak with the representatives of SESAN (Food and Nutrition Secretariat), Ministry of Foreign Relations and Ministry of Agriculture of Guatemala. The reason was to highlight our results from the Tortilla dialogue, and how they are integrating it into their National Policy currently.

We were there for the launch of the SOFI Report (State of Food Security in the World), focused on food prices. During the entire UNFSS, what is happening in G4za and Sud4n were not missed at all, especially regarding food.

We also participated in the "Regenerative School Meals Conference" hosted by the Rockefeller Foundation, where we highlighted that agriculture towards school meals should produce what the kids actually like, and have them into consideration, and not necessarily deciding for them. 

I will always remember this day, because starting with this conference, the Food VP initiated his talk, by communicating to all of us about the passing of Sir. David N. We were all shocked in disbelief. David was an incredible human being, person and friend. Bibi met him in 2019 in Colombia during the Annual Meeting of the Tropical Forest Alliance, where they shared the closing panel together. All through that conference, Bibi admired his way of speaking, gentle yet so clearly defined words and vision. Later, David was the cornerstone for the many dialogues and the UNFSS, and the Reference Group calls every three months. We miss you dearly and thank you David.

• Peach visit in Guatemala and Japan

During summer, we also visited with Shun many peach fields in Japan, going to Yamanashi, Fukushima, and getting to know the peaches from Iwate, Akita and Aomori. Next summer, we will go further South. One epic moment was taking the picture of the MOMO peach in front of Mount Fuji. And in Guatemala, we connected with the peach farmers in Tecpan, where the restaurants sourced their peaches for the meals!

In Fukushima, we returned Konno Fruit Farms, where we picked peaches, and spoke with the family about how the lack or less rain than usual made the peach smaller. 

And remember, Peach 4 Peace!

• Stay tuned for our next report of the final trimester of the year, and please SHARE our project during GivingTuesday!!