We are excited to have recently funded another Cafe Femenino grant request in Peru! Our funding has helped to sponsor the Early Education Centers in seventeen communities that supply coffee for Cafe Femenino. The focus is on monitoring and reducing malnutrition by educating teachers, parents and students on the nutritional value of local foods and how to incorporate them into the daily diet. A nurse visits each school three times a year to take the height and weight of each student to help measure the impact of the program over time.
There have been some key findings over the years: The children clearly show improvement during the school year since their lunchboxes are being monitored each day but malnutrition increases during the summer months when they are not monitored. There are now some processed food lunch options available in the rural communities and parents are taking advantage of these processed food options which tends to increase the incidence of malnutrition and obesity.
This year the grant funds will be providing additional workshops available to leaders and residents of the communities.
Thank you to all of our supporters for making this grant possible!
