Healthy Kitchens and Cooking for Nutrition

[from Samayac, Suchitpequez] - In Guatemala, the President's Wife supervises the Office for Social Work Projects, known as SOSEP for its initials in Spanish. During the current Administration, SOSEP has built several Day Centers for the elderly poor across the country. 

Many -- maybe even most -- of the elderly guests at these Centers receive little or no help from their families, so the Centers are important for their social aspect, for the activities they offer, and especially for the food they provide -- often the only meals the elderly guests have each day.

Over several years of working with rural families, the Seeds for a FutureTeam has developed a lot of expertise in growing Nutrition Gardens in small spaces, such as are available at these Centers.  One in Samayac, for example, has just two narrow areas where nutritious vegetables and greens can be planted in the earth.  Other food plants are grown in re-purposed containers, such as discarded plastic bottles and bowls, or old tires, which can be placed in patio areas or even on roof terraces.

What is so heart-warming about this new focus for Seeds for a Future are the benefits it offers the Center's elderly guests: 

• planting and caring for the Nutrition Garden gives them the joy of being productive,
• they feel good about doing something that will help their friends at the Center, and
• the food they produce will mean better nutrition and healthier lives.

The Seeds for a Future Team has also become experts in helping cooks understand why and how to use the foods produced in a Nutrition Garden to increase the nutritive value of popular recipes.  Cooks at the Centers have been eager to learn about such nutritional enhancements as Green Tortillas, using high-nutrition greens in soups and stews, and replacing the empty calories of commercially-produced beverages with delicious and nutritious drinks made using fruits and plants.

As we develop this focus on helping the elderly poor have more nutritious meals, we continue to work with rural moms and children to improve family nutrition and to reduce disease through better kitchen hygiene.

Your on-going support is needed more than ever, and a gift just now would be very welcome.  Please consider a monthly giving plan -- a modest gift each month will help sustain Seeds for a Future, so we can continue to help both elders and young families create better lives for themselves in rural Guatemala.

On behalf of the families, the elders and the Seeds for a Future Team,

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!