Mexicans are known for experiencing hard times with a smile on their face and sometimes a joke to share. “Septihambre” is slang for September, where hambre, meaning hunger, makes light of the reality that this month, more than any other, is the most difficult economically for businesses owners, their employees and their families.
Action For Food, sponsored by the non-profit community organization PEACE, focuses on assisting families at a time when they desperately need a hand. In a tourist destination like the Northshore of the Banderas Bay area, restaurants, hotels and other tourism services are all witnessing their lowest business volumes during the “low season” of the summer months. During that period, families have been forced to use up most of whatever they may have had in savings. Any money left at all has to be spent to buy school supplies for their children returning to class this month. That’s the reason PEACE has enlisted the help of the community to organize a special month-long project to collect and distribute food and supplies for people in need, in a dignified way, while producing environmentally-friendly communities.
Action For Food is an annual project of the PEACE Community Pride program, Protectores de la Comunidad, which focuses on the needs of single mothers, the elderly, disabled, and unemployed persons. These members of the community work for two hours a day to keep their communities clean and in return, bring home a bag of healthy food that will provide them and their families ten wholesome meals, as well as some household necessities. The result is clean streets, schools and playgrounds, while litter is collected for recycling. PEACE initiated this project two years ago and has supplied over 60,000 meals and supplies to families in five Northshore Banderas Bay area communities.During the entire month of September, Action For Food volunteers will be accepting donations of food and household necessities at 5 locations:
The Vallarta Yacht Club in Nuevo Vallarta (next to Paradise Village Marina); Bucerías Art Walk Plaza (Lázaro Cárdenas #62); Octopus Garden Restaurant (Coral #6) and Philo’s Bar (Delfin #5) in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle; and PEACE headquarters in Punta de Mita.
Items being sought to support Action For Food are bags of dry beans and dry rice, boxed milk, pasta noodles, canned tuna, soup bouillon, tomato paste, cooking oil and toilet paper.
This food package provides 10 meals and supplies at a cost of about 70 pesos.
To be part of this worthwhile project, even if you are not currently in the area, you can make an online donation through Paypal on the www.PeaceMexico.org website. For more information please con. tact Cecilia Paredes at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
PEACE, (Protection, Education, Animals, Culture, Environment) established in 2005, is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization made up of three main programs which focus on education, animal well-being, and environmental protection in the municipality of Bahia de Banderas, Nayarit. PEACE works hand-in-hand with communities in Mexico to provide holistic education, combined with community action programs that enable people to improve their quality of life as well as their financial stability.