The Solidaridad Huatulco project team visited the Vicente Guerrero communal kitchen in the H3 sector at the end of May. In a detailed discussion with the organizers, it was decided that the community kitchen would be supported and supplied with food once a week in June.

Sector H3 is one of the poorest in Santa Cruz Huatulco. Most people here live from jobs in the hotel industry, restaurants and tourism in general. They were released immediately after the start of the lockdown in March, and since then they have had to see how to make ends meet.

The neighbors of the hamlet of Vicente Guerrero have organized themselves and decided to set up a communal kitchen. For this purpose a building was converted without further ado, which is still in the shell construction phase. A cooking area was built, cooking utensils and a kitchen team were organized.

For more than 2 months now, the team has been cooking more than 400 portions daily for needy people from the neighbourhood. In order to avoid large gatherings of people, only one person per family comes to collect the food rations.

The older generations are especially protected. So that they don't have to wait too long in the heat for their food and don't come into contact with too many people, they stand in a separate, much shorter queue and are given preferential treatment when it comes to food distribution.

The kitchen team does an incredible job. The work starts at about 7 o'clock in the morning. Vegetables are prepared, rice and beans are cooked. Big cooking pots, in which one can cook for so many people, are scarce and expensive to buy. Therefore, a stew of different vegetables is usually cooked, and if available some pork or chicken is added. The meal is then supplemented with a portion of rice or beans. The project team was already able to convince themselves of the excellent taste of the meals. Many thanks for this!

Between 14 and 15 o'clock the meals are served. Afterwards, the dishes are washed and the meal of the following day is organised. The working day ends then for most of them between 4 and 5 pm. In order to prevent theft, the food store is also guarded by someone every night.

This enormous, voluntary and unpaid effort cannot be overestimated. Therefore the project team has decided to supply the kitchen with food on Mondays at least in June. The delivery consists of more than 70 kilograms of vegetables and about 25 whole chicken. Animal proteins are the ingredient the kitchen team lacks the most, which is why we will focus on this ingredient in addition to the vegetables.

The vegetables will be purchased from the local greengrocer Hermanos Lucas. The meat is bought from the butchery Lupita in sector H3. Both shops support the community kitchens with very generous donations and discounts, from which our project team can also benefit.

This support will result in costs for the project of about 13'000 Pesos for the next four weeks. At the end of June the situation will be reviewed and discussed with the organizers of the community kitchen. If the financial situation of the project allows it, and the kitchen team remains willing to continue its sacrificial work, we will gladly continue to support the project.

For this we are also dependent on your help. When you consider that with about 150 USD per day it is possible to cook for more than 400 people, it is almost unbelievable. And this help is more than necessary for the people of Huatulco in these difficult times. All our donors therefore deserve an enormous thank you for their support!