Help Feed Hundreds of Hungry People

The Cuenca Soup Kitchen continues to grow and to expand its impact. Although providing food assistance in the form of food kits to families is still at the core of what we do, our newest initiative recognizes the importance of being eco-friendly by providing the babies and toddlers in our program with GelWear diapers, a product designed and produced in Ecuador. These diapers are a long-term, eco-friendly, biodegradable, and hypoallergenic solution to disposable diapers.

We also provide donated clothing and housewares. The number that we serve on a regular basis has grown to over 700. By partnering with Hearts of Gold and their social worker, we are able to monitor these families and transition them out of the program as they become stable, thereby making room for the next family that needs our services in order to achieve stability.

Finally, the Cuenca Soup Kitchen has continued to provide assistance in natural disasters. When flash flooding washed away homes and livelihoods in and around Cuenca, Ecuador in May of 2021, we mobilized to provide thousands of pounds of food. This aid continued for weeks as those impacted re-established themselves.

The Cuenca Soup Kitchen is poised to continue to help those in need work towards stability and self-sufficiency

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You, our donors and our volunteers, are the life-line of the Cuenca Soup Kitchen. Without your help, many refugees and Ecuadorians would go hungry.

Their stories:

“I’m starving but I don’t have any money for the bus so how do I feed the children?” Change for Change now makes it possible for this family to get to the food they need. 

“I have angels everywhere,” says Carmen. After fleeing political violence in Venezuela, your donations helped her and her husband feed their child, clothe their family, and access medical care, while they worked to establish their little family in Cuenca. Thanks to you, they have been successful. 

“This food means I can finish high school,” says Karin. She still works selling trash bags on the street but the food means she has time to study so that she can attend university in the future and provide a future for her baby daughter.

On March 12, 2020 the Cuenca Soup Kitchen, like much of the world, was closed down due to COVID. This left the population we serve even more vulnerable. Those who previously had few resources now found themselves with none.

Those who begged in the streets, those who walked here from Venezuela in search of a better life, and the Ecuadorian working poor were all in danger of starvation.

No one was spared in this crisis and in a developing country, the numbers are staggering. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, we served hot meals every weekday and provided access to clothing and other basic items for migrant families and Venezuelan refugees. However, the social distancing requirements of the pandemic has deepened this challenge.

In order to serve as many as possible, the Cuenca Soup Kitchen has partnered with other organizations and uses existing infrastructures to expand our ability to provide food kits for families in and around Cuenca, Ecuador. The families include Ecuadorians and Venezuelans. All are at risk and many have multiple vulnerabilities including disabilities and health concerns. Some are children without familial support.

Currently:

We partner with Foundations, organizations, and businesses: Hearts of Gold, Nur, Cetap-Lucy, El Arenal, Osso, Tomebamba Rotary, Kolo

Your donations and our partnerships have allowed us to almost quadruple the number of people we serve 

Your response to the massive Chunchi landslide helped an entire village get back on its fee

You provided the resources to deliver thousands of seedlings to those with the ability to grow their own food

You supported the Pig Project which provided thousands of pounds of high quality protein to hungry families 

Your gifts and donations have made it possible for us to reestablish the clothing program and household goods program, the diaper program, and to establish Change for Change - these funds go towards transportation for outlying families so that they can access the food they so desperately need

The future holds continued challenges:

Ecuador’s vaccination program is not as robust as in many countries, making the continued economic and social impacts a reality for the foreseeable future

Fundraising is directly impacted by the economic and social realities of the COVID crisis - as the need grows, the resources shrink

COVID-19 has not changed our mission, only our method. The Cuenca Soup Kitchen is dedicated to keeping families alive and together. Our goal is to provide a bridge that will connect as many families as possible to a more stable future and with your continued help, we can do that.