Feed the Hungry
San Miguel de Allende
Providing a nutritious hot meal to more than 3000 children a day.
Our 23 kitchens provide the food that makes possible children’s health, education and future.
A non-profit charity tax deductible in the USA and Mexico.
Executive Director: Tony Adlerbert
Deputy Executive Director: Mary Murrell
Tel: 011 52 415 152-2402
Mail: Border Crossings, Correo 19
Email: contact@feedthehungrysma.org
Website: www.feedthehungrysma.orgVolunteer Opportunities
152-2402
volunteers@feedthehungrysma.org
Feed the Hungry Auction Raises US$84,000 to Provide Nutritious Hot Meals to Young SMA Children in 2005
“It was a stunning night of fun and touching moments for a good cause February 23 as Feed the Hungry’s largest fund-raising event of the year, the Annual Mexican Fiesta, Auction and Raffle raised nearly US$84,000, about the same amount as last year,” according to Executive Director Tony Adlerbert.
“This generous support from local residents and visitors will help us further our current program of feeding more than 3,000 hungry young children a day from 25 kitchens in San Miguel and the surrounding communities,” he said.
“The winners of Feed the Hungry’s Raffle to win $50,000 pesos were Barbara and Edward White of Savannah, Georgia who bought 10 of the nearly 800 raffle tickets sold, Deputy Executive Director Mary Murrell said.
Murrell also said, “One of the most touching aspects of the auction was 10-year old Victoriano Chavez Ramirez who baked and donated cookies for the event.” Victoriano, who is from San Miguel, started his cookie-making business, ‘Galletas Victoriano’s’, when he was seven years old. He is in the fourth grade at Fragua de la Independencia School and sells his cookies throughout San Miguel including Bagel Café and El Tomate. “Victoriano said he wanted to help children less fortunate than himself by contributing his cookies as part of the evening’s refreshments for auction participants,” according to Murrell.
“Without our generous donors and buyers, all of our wonderful volunteers, the media and our auctioneer, this auction would not have been the success that it was,” said Auction Chairperson Jeannie Schnakenberg.”
Schnakenberg said the Los Pinos Fiesta Hall, where the event took place, was beautifully coordinated and decorated throughout by volunteers in an authentic Mexican theme from the hundreds of papel picado de china suspended from the ceilings to the colorful tables for over 300 people. The centerpieces were large comals filled with paper mache fruits and vegetables to remind the buyers of the food that Feed the Hungry serves each day. The coordinated placemats at each table showed photographs of the children who benefited from the auction.
Feed the Hungry was founded in 1987 as an outreach program of St. Paul’s Church to address malnutrition among children in San Miguel. It has been an independent organization since 1995. Support for the program comes in part from funds raised at the Annual Mexican Fiesta Auction & Raffle, the annual appeal during the holiday season, generous donations received throughout the year from individuals plus funds from Mexican companies and U.S. companies doing business in Mexico. Contributions are tax deductible in the U.S. and Mexico.
Of every dollar raised, only nine cents goes for Feed the Hungry administration, leaving 91 cents to feed the children, one of the highest ratios of more than 3,000 charities measured by an independent U.S. research firm. Over the past decade, prudent nutrition management and strict inventory controls have reduced Feed the Hungry’s per-meal cost by half: to 19 cents from 38 cents.
Feed the Hungry can build a new kitchen, attached to a school, for US$10,000, operate it for US$7,500 a year and feed a child for an entire school year for US$65. For more information, email: contact@feedthehungrysma.org or visit www.feedthehungrysma.org
Contact:
Harold Green
154-7282
Jay Clark
154-6848
Deputy Executive Director Mary Murrell visits the cookie
kitchen of 10-year old Victoriano Chavez Ramirez
who baked and donated cookies for
Feed the Hungry's Annual Mexican Fiesta, Auction and Raffle
to help children less fortunate than himself.
Photo by Ivan Schuster.
SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, January 22, 2005
Just dream what you can do with $50,000 pesos.
Take a safari? Sail on an exotic cruise? Go on a blow-out shopping spree? Put an addition on your home? Buy something special you’ve always wanted?
The winner of this year’s raffle during Feed the Hungry’s spectacular Annual Mexican Fiesta & Auction the evening of February 23 will receive their choice of $50,000 pesos or $5,000 USD.
Proceeds from the annual event go to help Feed the Hungry’s scores of volunteers serve a nutritious hot meal from more than 25 kitchens in San Miguel and the surrounding community to more than 3,000 young children a day.
Feed the Hungry Deputy Executive Director Mary Murrell said, “Offering a prize of $50,000 pesos instead of an actual item or trip, is an ideal dream wish for everyone because it gives the winner complete flexibility to do whatever they would like to do, let their imagination take over and have the freedom to do it whenever they want.”
“This year we have also reduced the cost of our raffle tickets by 50 per cent so that more people in the community can become involved in helping us feed thousands of hungry children every day in San Miguel”, Feed the Hungry Executive Director Tony Adlerbert said.
“We have also added another attractive incentive to the raffle. The more raffle tickets you buy, the more raffle tickets you will get free, thus you will have even more chances to win,” Adlerbert said.
One raffle ticket costs $50 USD or $500 pesos. Spend $100 or $1,000 pesos and a buyer gets three raffle tickets, including one ticket free. Spending $250 USD or $2,500 pesos buys ten raffle tickets including five tickets free. And, $500 USD or $5,000 pesos buys get twenty-five tickets, including fifteen tickets free.
“Each paid ticket provides over 260 meals, so let your heart tell you how many hungry children you would like to feed. Then just dream what you could do with your $50,000 pesos or $5,000 USD prize,” Murrell said.
The winning ticket will be drawn Wednesday evening, February 23, at Feed the Hungry’s spectacular Annual Mexican Fiesta & Auction at the Los Pinos Fiesta Hall, one block west of Gigante. The winner does not have to be present to win.
Auction chairman Jeannie Schnakenberg said, “Feed the Hungry’s Annual Mexican Fiesta & Auction will be our most exciting fun festive evening ever. There will be free refreshments, delicious food and lively music. The auction items are truly spectacular. There’s magnificent art, jewelry, crafts, folk art, pottery, antiques, photography, sculpture, dining events, party events, get-away-lodges, dream vacations and more. The silent auction begins at 5:30 and the live auction begins at 7:00.”
Auction tickets and raffle tickets are available in the Jardin every day from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. All tickets are tax-deductible in the U.S.A. and Mexico.
For more information or to buy more auction and raffle tickets,
call Tony Adlerbert at 152-8501 or email contact@feedthehungrysma.org.
To learn more about Feed the Hungry, visit www.feedthehungrysma.org
SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, September 15, 2004Feed the Hungry Names Andy Swann Driver of the Year; Winner Delivers Food, Builds School Kitchens for Fourth Straight Year
Every Tuesday for the past four years, Andy Swann has been up before the sun, loading bags of beans, crates of fresh vegetables and sacks of rice into his SUV for the 45-minute drive from San Miguel to Cuadrilla on the old railroad roadbed from Atontonilco.
On rainy days, when it’s impossible to drive across the Rio Laja, people with wheelbarrows from Cuadrilla cross the river on a foot bridge to transport the food back to their local school’s kitchen. There, cooks hired and trained by Feed the Hungry are waiting to prepare lunch for nearly 200 children who might not otherwise eat at all that day.
“People ask me why I do this, and the answer’s simple: I do it because my life has been so incredibly blessed that not to give something to those less fortunate would be unthinkable,” Swann says.
For his volunteer work, Swann has been named Feed the Hungry’s “Driver of the Year” for 2003 – 2004, according to Ken Lathrop, head of food storage and distribution for the local charity which provides a nutritious hot meal to more than 3,000 children a day in San Miguel and the surrounding communities.
“Andy’s unselfish commitment to the program, driving every week to one of our most difficult- to-reach kitchens, and also helping to build all the new kitchens, solidly qualified him for this year’s award,” Lathrop said.
Swann, 50, was born and raised in Tyler, Texas and worked in the oil industry there until moving to San Miguel in 1988 with his wife, Rosemary. Six years ago, when San Miguel had grown into what Swann calls “a bustling little city,” the couple moved to the quieter town of El Cortijo with their two dogs and a cat.
Although he was involved in property development in Mexico and is now semi-retired, Swann continues to use his construction skills for a worthy cause. Just this year alone, Swann, together with volunteer crew members Bill Curra, Bob Haas and Jim Karabasz, built three completely new Feed the Hungry kitchens attached to schools, rebuilt two others, added bathrooms at two more and constructed a playground at yet another location.
Swann is one of about 50 regular and back-up volunteer drivers who use their own vehicles and buy their own gas to deliver supplies each week to Feed the Hungry’s 24 kitchens, providing the food that makes possible children’s health, education and future. Without proper nourishment, children lack the energy to concentrate on their studies, reducing their ability to learn and stay in school, and usually sentencing them to lives of permanent poverty, according to specialists in child development.
In addition to delivering food to Feed the Hungry kitchens as far away as San Cristobal, drivers also get involved with their schools in other ways, Lathrop said, including serving as male role models for children without fathers, reading stories in classrooms and being honored as school patrons at special events.
The Feed the Hungry drivers, who each average nearly four years of service, include three Mexican nationals and five women who are vital to the success of the 17-year-old non-profit, tax deductible program that now serves 60,000 meals a month, Lathrop said.
Lathrop noted that, “Throughout Mexico, 300,000 children die annually from malnutrition and although our drivers rarely miss a delivery, they know that if the food doesn’t get to the kitchens on time, we’ll fall farther behind in the uphill battle against malnutrition.”
Contact:
Feed the Hungry
Jay Clark
154-6848
Press Release
SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, August 31, 2004Feed the Hungry Elects Mary Murrell Deputy Executive Director; Post Brings Management Strength, Stability to Charity’s Mission
Dr. Mary Murrell, a veteran management consultant, academician and activist on behalf of charitable non-profit organizations, has been elected deputy executive director of Feed the Hungry San Miguel and chairman of its advisory council on which she has served for the past year.
“Murrell’s top executive background provides us with a greater depth and continuity of management so that we can respond efficiently and effectively to our mission in the years ahead,” said Tony Adlerbert, Feed the Hungry’s executive director since 1995. “Mary brings a real passion for helping the poor, especially the poor children of Mexico. In her new role, she will work with me on long term funding programs to help provide a safe financial future for our organization, which is so vital to the future of San Miguel.”
Feed the Hungry was founded in 1987 and provides a nutritious hot meal to more than 3,000 school children a day from 23 kitchens located in San Miguel and the surrounding rural communities.
Murrell said, “One of my goals in moving to Mexico was to devote more of my time to helping others. I wanted to be involved with an organization with a very clear focus on a mission I felt strongly about. I also wanted an opportunity to be an active member of a team of people who share a strong commitment to actually doing the work of the charity.”
She added that, “After visiting several of the Feed the Hungry kitchens with Tony Adlerbert, I knew I wanted to be part of his team. It is such a powerful experience to see all those little children holding their bowls of food, having the chance to eat as much as they want…and all the smiles.”
According to Adlerbert, research by nutritionists and pediatricians indicates that children fed by Feed the Hungry demonstrate improved energy and longer attention spans, which increases their learning capacity and their ability to continue their education. Children raised without sufficient nutrition are much more likely to remain in poverty throughout their adult lives and the damage they suffer from malnutrition is usually permanent, the experts say. Malnutrition claims the lives of 300,000 children annually throughout Mexico, Adlerbert pointed out.
Prior to relocating to San Miguel in 2001, Murrell had owned a management consulting firm based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania since 1989, working with Fortune 500 business leaders to improve the performance of their companies. Earlier, she was a senior vice president of a London-based international business consulting firm, a principal with Hay Management Consultants and a manager with AT&T. Murrell’s clients included American Home Products, American Red Cross, Candle Corporation, Cisco Systems, IBM, Mitel Corporation, Mutual of Omaha, NCR and Pepsi-Cola. She also had been a faculty member at Temple University and Rutgers University.
Murrell earned a B. A. degree with honors from Duke University, M.A. degrees from SUNY-Albany and the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph. D. from the Wharton School.
Before moving to San Miguel, Murrell was on the board of a school for deaf children, active with a community theater and taught English as a second language at a local college.
Murrell and her husband, Ivan Schuster, are full-time residents of San Miguel.
