Our week in Central America sure went quickly. It is hard to belief it has come to an end. We completed our time with a visit to the Fabretto School and farm outside of Managua. It was a wonderful morning spent enjoying presentations from the students about their work on the Fabretto vegetable farm and watching the students perform local dances and songs.
We also were treated to a cooking demonstration by the mothers who volunteerto prepare the school lunches made from soy. It was a beautiful day and gave us a nice opportunity to meet some of the 70,000 students in Nicaragua that are receiving Textured Soy Protein (TSP) as part of the USDA Food for Education Grant that Fabretto, Food for the Poor, America Nicaragua Foundation, WISHH and NSRL are executing this year.
We then flew to Guatemala City and enjoyed a delicious dinner at a local restaurant that serves some of the best beans in town.
We had a meeting with Alimentos SA, a local company that produces Incaparina, a soy and corn mixture for Atol and also a flavored soy-corn beverage that is very popular in Guatemala and provides excellent nutrition. Alimentos is a great U.S. soy customer and it was a pleasure to see where some of our soy protein products go. W
e then traveled to Funda Ninas, a local home for girls that is sponsored and managed by Dona Isabel Bosch. Dona Isabel has created a beautiful and warm home for the girls in the middle of Guatemala City. The girls are a treasure and sang songs for us and showed us their home. Funda Ninas is also home to a soy cow sponsored by the World Soy Foundation and U.S. soybean farmers.
Our last day in Guatemala was a beautiful, cool and sunshiny day. We traveled to the local school in Zona 3 near the Cargill Perry Foods plant that is part of the Cargill-supported school under the Cargill grant to the World Soy Foundation. NSRL has been working with this school to provide nutrition education and assistance to incorporate textured soy protein into school meals.
Recently, NSRL developed a new concept to increase awareness of the goodness of soy and the importance of nutrition through a community Soy Nutrition Fair. The second such fair was held at the school where the 300 students were invited to attend with their parents and Cargill associates. It was such a fun day. The kids came and enjoyed carnival games, including an inflatable slide, face painting, balloons, soy milk and cookies, Perry hot dogs and other carnival snacks. Cargill volunteers took heights and weights of the children to monitor their growth progress. Nutrition presentations were made by NSRL, World Soy Foundation and our partners at CARE. Soy in cooking demonstrations were held for the parents, where they learned about the importance of soy and meat proteins and how to prepare local dishes.
Dan Farney visits with a child at a local school involved with soy nutrition programs.
It was a treat to see the children having a great day with their families and learning about how soy can play an important role in their diets. We ended the day with a visit to the city of Antigua where we were able to bring back some of the beautiful and colorful local handicrafts for our friends and families. It will be great fun to share these gifts and memories of our week in Central America.
Regards,
Bridget Owen, NSRL Associate Director
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