The Los Barriles Food Bank has developed a nice rhythm over the past few weeks which is why we wanted to give you an update on where we currently stand. It’s important to mention that the teams have been working so hard over the past weeks. For those leaving us now to head north, please take a well-deserved break! You are the unsung heroes of the past few weeks and have been amazing!
1.Households – this week we are hovering around 900 households across the region. We expect to be peaking in-step with the pandemic, so we hope that numbers will start to decline from mid-June onwards. (Construction is due to go back next week, and then on the 16th June, hotels and restaurants are due to reopen, but the after effects are going to be felt into the Fall).
2. Delivery System – in case you wondered how we deliver, Joe and his office team at the HQ have set up a system with Google maps and pins with corresponding numbers placed on gates. This helps the team, whoever the volunteers are, to identify the houses that need help. It’s working really well for the community because they’re not missed off the delivery drop, and helps to speed up the LB Food Bank delivery team’s day.
3. Donations – we are thankful that we have such a great bedrock of donations that we can keep the LB Food Bank ticking along. We have been advised to no longer include financial amounts in our communications, but if you would like to see a summary of where we are, please email emma.nicholson@kwmexico.mx.
4. Joe’s Deli & Veggie Girls – if you can continue to buy an item and drop it into the LB Food Bank donation box at both these stores, it really does help! It provides the variety that the families need in their diet, and helps to make our bank account stretch further.
5. Rations – our ration boxes typically include flour, oil, sugar, tomato paste, fresh vegetables, pasta, lentils, frozen chicken and are topped up with any food donations that are donated to the LB Food Bank. We are still running at the same cost amount per ratio box (comparable/slightly under what the BCS Alliance is able to do in La Paz, Cabo etc). This is thanks to Joe’s amazing efforts in negotiating great deals with suppliers and a meticulous focus on making the money work hard for us.
6. San Bartolo & El Cardonal – we would like to thank Mary (Quad Girl) and Sergio (Sergio’s ATV Rentals) very much for coming up with a great plan to deliver ratios to these areas. Their commitment to ensuring that we have an efficient delivery system in these harder-to-deliver areas is going to help us considerably. Thanks guys!
7. Packing Volunteers – the teams continue to break records every week by packing up hundreds of ration boxes in faster and faster times! We had a great response to our call for new packing volunteers for the summer. Thank you to Jeane for coordinating our merry band of volunteers.
8. ** MORE Volunteers Needed ** –We are now looking for DELIVERY VOLUNTEERS for Mondays and Thursdays. For Monday, we need 5 people with side-by-sides that are able to commit to delivering every week in the Los Barriles town. On Thursday, it’s our Buena Vista day and we need 2 people with side-by-sides that can commit every week. If you have a side-by-side and would like to be a driver, please let us know. You will have a guide in front of you and all you do is follow this guide around the area while your helper will jump out to drop off the rations. If you are interested, please email emma.nicholson@kwmexico.mx.
9. Reserves – we have three weeks of inventory at any one time, and 350 ration boxes ready to go which has considerably helped our set-up times.
10. Suppliers – we continue to work with existing suppliers to get good deals. Our vegetables are largely provided for free by friends such as Martinez & Sons Gourmet Produce in Todos Santos – thank you.
11. Spa and La Ribera – the guys in Spa Buena Vista continue to operate their own food bank which is a great help to the region. The La Ribera Food Bank, supported by Rotary, is also going great guns! You can follow their progress at https://www.facebook.com/LRFoodbankAnd finally, while this is never an exact science, and sometimes we run into challenges, we are all doing our best to make this work. If you have any questions, please let us know.
Thanks from us all! Joe, Jeane, Emma, Ian