Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – On March 23 the Vallarta Food Bank will have officially been in operation for two years. On March 6, the people of Puerto Vallarta came out to show their appreciation and support of local restaurateurs Francie Nguyen, Jimmy Plouff & Frankie Victoria Banuelos, who founded this grass-roots movement that is making a positive change in our community.
Francie Nguyen, speaking on behalf of the Vallarta Food Bank founders, tells us more:
Our first major fundraiser, the ‘Spring Fling,’ was a great success. We raised over $800,000 pesos from the event. The fund will be crucial for the coming raining season when the lines at our soup kitchen will be longer due to low-season unemployment and annual flooding. A big thank you to everyone who came out to support us and the work that we do. We’re already excited about next year’s Spring Fling. Please save the date of March 5, 2023, for our next event.
It’s been two years since we started Vallarta Food Bank, and we keep growing. To date, over 85,000 meals served and over 135,000 despensas made and distributed. Currently, we’re serving between 600-800 servings of hot meals a day at our soup kitchen. That’s a lot of food our volunteers cook up every day!
Besides food, we expanded our helping hands to medical assistance, education, and emergency relief. As our volunteer, Doctor Javier is at the food bank every Monday for free checkups and medication advice. If you know of anyone who might need medical checkup, please send them to our food bank.
For our displaced and low-income families, our food bank provides a safe place for shower and laundry. We also have plenty of clothing, shoes, and household supplies for them. If you see a family that needs help with food and clothing, please let them know about our food bank.
To maximize our fund and help as many people as we can, we keep a tight monthly budget on all expenses. While all donations are greatly appreciated, recurring monthly donations allow us to achieve an efficient budget and take advantage of bulk food supply buying power. When we can better forecast our monthly budget, each dollar and peso can nearly double in value.
If you can make a small monthly donation it will go a long way to support our food bank.
During the months of March and April, the first 50 new monthly contributors who make a one-year commitment, will receive a silver pendant of our food bank logo as a thank you gift. It’s a beautiful pendant that we hope all of our monthly contributors will wear proudly.
Thank you to all our donors and volunteers especially all the talented artists, musicians, local businesses who donated their work, time, and gifts for the fundraiser. We are only as good as our supporters.
Thank you for the opportunity to help this beautiful community!
To learn more, volunteer, or donate, please visit vallartafoodbank.com, and be sure to like/follow them on Facebook to stay up to date on what they are doing.
The Vallarta Food Bank is 100% volunteer based, but all of their work would be impossible without the generosity of donors and supporters. If you would like to help the families of Puerto Vallarta get through trying times, please visit vallartafoodbank.com for donation information. If you would like to receive a U.S. tax receipt for your donation, please visit casajojofoundation.org.