The following was written in 2014, upon the 30th anniversary of the Feed the Hungry San Miguel.
Educating a Village: Feed the Hungry San Miguel and Los Ricos de Abajo
By Dianne Walta Hart
It began in 2004 with a man offering a woman a ride on a dusty rural road near San Miguel de Allende. This was contrary to country etiquette – women do not take rides from men who are alone in their cars – but in this case, the woman, Lucha Jiménez Rodríguez, the director of the nearby elementary school, accepted. During the ride, she talked about her school at Los Ricos de Abajo, its poverty, and the odds against its residents. The man, Bob Haas, said he’d try to help by talking with his friends at Feed the Hungry San Miguel.
Months later, when both Bob and Lucha had forgotten each other’s names but still remembered the promise, Feed the Hungry volunteers showed up at Lucha’s school in Los Ricos de Abajo with a plan to attach a kitchen to the school and feed the children. After clearing the way with officials and receiving donated funds from the Michael Chadwick family, Feed the Hungry constructed the addition – with serious help from Bob Haas, Andy Swann, and their favorite workman, Gustavo. They hired two local cooks, and in January 2005, began serving daily meals.
The next year the Chadwicks asked if there was something else they could do for the village and the decision was made to teach English. At that time, of the eight students on average who would finish the sixth grade, only three or four would go on to the seventh grade in Atotonilco. When Michael Chadwick heard the children’s stories in person, he remembered his father in England who was taken out of school after the third grade to work in a textile factory. He then started sponsoring scholarships to promising students in the sixth grade. With the help of the volunteer teachers and other donors, that program has been extended to all students who finish the sixth grade at Los Ricos.
The specific results of that chance encounter in 2004 that brought Feed the Hungry San Miguel to Los Ricos de Abajo are as follows:
- The Chadwick family’s donation built the kitchen and the family has continued to support it.
- A volunteer group of 30-40 Feed the Hungry English teachers keep to their schedule of teaching grades one to six in the elementary school one day a week for three months during the winter.
- The teachers also tutor their former students who are now in junior and senior high school, an arrangement that provides some mentoring.
- After the villagers asked if the teachers would consider classes for them as well, classes for adults began in January 2011.
- In 2012 the kindergarten teacher asked for classes for her students.
- In 2012-13, over 40 students from Los Ricos will be in the junior and senior high schools with scholarships.
- Volunteer English teachers tutor the high school students on Saturdays in San Miguel in the spring, fall, and winter.
- In 2012, Mujeres en Cambio, in collaboration with Feed the Hungry, began offering scholarships to five high-achieving female students.
- Apoyo a Gente Emprendedora and Feed the Hungry have begun a garden project in the rancho and at the school.
- Once a week the Children’s World Peace Organization goes to the school to teach conflict resolution.
- San Miguel’s Pro Música teaches musical instruments to the elementary school students.
- The teachers created a school library.
- The dental van shared by Patronato Pro Niños and Feed the Hungry takes care of the children’s teeth.
- The South Whidbey Island (WA) Rotary Club awarded Feed the Hungry two grants for the school and the Learning Center. A private donor bought laptops for the Center and for the oldest students. A local Internet service provider provided Internet access. Today, three high school students staff the Learning Center that is open to all scholarship students.
- San Miguel’s Unitarian Universalists awarded Feed the Hungry a grant to purchase library and teaching books for the Los Ricos program.
- Computadoras Pro Jóvenes delivered three computers for classroom use and assists with the Learning Center.
- Feed the Hungry, the Chadwicks, and other donors built flush toilets for the school, a storage area, and a dining room where students can eat their lunch sheltered from the frequent inclement weather on their hilltop.
To learn more about Feed the Hungry San Miguel’s work in Los Ricos de Abajo, the book The School on the Other Side of the River: The Educational Journey of Los Ricos de Abajo, published in 2023, is available in print and as an e-book. All profits from the sale of the book go to the Los Ricos de Abajo Scholarship fund under the auspices of Feed the Hungry San Miguel.
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