Holiday Food Baskets
Food prices have continued to rise and the food crisis is taking a toll on children and the most vulnerable. Malnutrition is a constant challenge amongst the families we serve. Mother Teresa said "if you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one..." At this time we are asking you to consider feeding an impoverished family. We provide baskets during:
- Christmas (Tamale baskets)
A meal of specially prepared tamales with seasonal trimmings is the traditional Christmas dinner of indigenous Guatemalans. Special meals are also prepared to mark other holiday.
Mayan Families prepares and gift wraps each basket containing enough food to prepare a festive meal. The contents of the basket changes according to the holiday, but typically contain:
- Reusable Plastic basket
- Oil
- Rice
- Block of drinking chocolate(the traditional drink at midnight)
- Fruit
- Vegetables
- Chicken
- Sugar
- Pasta
- Black Beans
- Incaiparina (fortified drink mix - cereal)
- Cookies
You can make a difference now!
Each basket costs $40. To send a Tamale Basket to a family in need, go to http://www.mayanfamilies.org/donatenow. Enter your gift in the "Community Aid" box. If you would like to designate a particular family to receive your basket, please enter either their Family Aid number or a Student Sponsorship number in the box marked "Extra Notes". Or you may send a check to:
Mayan Families
P.o Box 52
Claremont, N.C. 28610
If you would like to give this gift in honor of someone special, please send an email to dwight@mayanfamilies.org and specify the details and we will post this on our "in honor of" web page. If you would like to include a photo of your "someone special" we will also post their photo. To have an e-mail send to the person you are honoring, please send us their e-mail address.
Here is the story of how we started this project:
At midnight on Christmas Eve 2005, two of our sponsored students went door to door hoping someone would give them a tamale to eat (which is the traditional meal at Christmas). Their single mother could not afford to buy the ingredients to make Tamales.
When we found out about this we wondered how many other families could not afford to celebrate Christmas and how many other children were sad and hungry at this time of the year. It turned out there were a lot of people who could not afford to celebrate Christmas.
In 2006 we started distributing Christmas Tamale Baskets . We gave out 215 baskets of food. In 2007 we gave out 650 baskets. In 2008 we gave out more than 1,000. This Holiday season we want to give out food baskets to over 2,000 families!