This project will provide Coprodeli’s Girls’ and Boys’ Group Homes with resources to purchase additional local produce – fresh vegetables, fruit and meat – to improve vitamin and mineral intake, and increase the nutritional benefits of each meal. Group Homes serve three meals each day as part of the children’s daily routine. Meals are eaten together, as a way to encourage a positive group dynamic and social interaction. Each child has a role in preparing, serving and cleaning up after a meal, to teach them responsibility, team work, culinary and food preparation skills. Although the Group Homes receive donated food commodities and has a small budget for purchasing food items, these resources aren’t sufficient to provide balanced meals that are familiar to the children. Additional resources - $100 a month – will supply needed vegetables, fresh fruit and meat to each Group Home so children can enjoy healthy, delicious meals.

Malnutrition and undernourishment are barriers to development in Peru and particularly among neglected or abandoned children in Callao. Efforts to improve the quality of life among poor families are continually derailed by the effects of hunger and limited food options. Malnutrition is more concentrated in rural areas with 32.8% of children under 5 affected. Without the means to receiving proper nutrition, children are vulnerable to many serious illnesses including cirrhosis, blindness, and diabetes, besides the daily struggle to combat hunger to focus in school and contribute to their family and community.

This project will have a lasting profound impact for the 50 boys and girls at Coprodeli’s Group Homes in Callao. Sustained, balanced nutrition over a period of five months will allow children to overcome symptoms of malnutrition, strengthen their immune systems, and begin to gain weight to enjoy a better quality of life.

Coprodeli Group Homes provide a foundation for children to learn and grow, promote health and well-being. All of the boys and girls at the Group Homes come from situations of extreme emotional, psychological and/or physical abuse, some have been orphaned, others abandoned. The Group Homes are places where they can feel safe, some for the first times in their lives, receive meals and begin a process of positive behavioral, social, psychological and health development while living in a supportive setting. Meals served to the children supports their healthy, physical development; it also promotes their school attendance and ensures that they are eager and ready to learn.

Each Group Home will receive an additional $100 per month for five months ($500 to each from the $1,000 project goal) to purchase fresh local vegetables, fruit, and meat to supplement donated food aid and provide healthy, balanced meals to children that they can enjoy and gain necessary micronutrients. While each Group Home receives donated food aid – fortified dehydrated soup, protein-enriched rice – incorporating fresh vegetables and meats as additional vitamin, mineral and protein sources is critical in encouraging children to eat. Lentils and viscera are cost-efficient and adequate sources of protein, but the girls and boys are sometimes reluctant to finish these meals when served. Combined with donated commodities, this project will support Group Homes to feed the children with fresh foods.