A Community We Support: San José de Allende
Background
The Feed the Hungry San Miguel kitchen in the community of San José de Allende opened in 2018. During school year 2023-2024, balanced, nutritious meals are served to 204 students attending the Ignacio Allende elementary (primaria) school. Purified water is also delivered to the schools for meal preparation and consumption by students and teachers.
Even in some of the communities where we provide school meals, additional nutritional support for the rest of the family is sorely needed. In response, we developed the Extended Alimentation program to help provide food and education for specific families who present cases of severe malnutrition. There are four families in this community that receive the benefits of this program.
Location Statistics
The San José de Allende community is 65km from the Feed the Hungry Center. The most recent INEGI census (2020) reported a population of 925 men, women, and children, residing in 208 households. Fewer than half of the homes had indoor sanitary facilities. Thirty-seven percent of the residents were under the age of 14. Of the residents over 12 years old, only 27% were economically active. The average level of schooling completed by adults was less than 5 years, and 14% were illiterate.
Nutrition Report – School Year 2022-2023
For the latest Nutrition Report, staff nutritionists assessed 183 students in primaria through height, weight, and body fat measurements.
Feed the Hungry San Miguel not only provides healthy school meals, we also provide counseling for children and their parents to try to combat overweight and obesity, conditions that puts them at risk of suffering from cardiovascular and kidney diseases and diabetes at an early age.
The main causes are the consumption of processed foods with large amounts of sugar, trans fats and salt, and the lack of physical activity. The consumption of these products is characteristic in the community; the children refer to frequently consuming soft drinks, juices, sweets, and pastries. They also present clinical signs such as dental caries that evidence the consumption of sugars.
Health Assessment Results
| Condition | Percentage of Students |
|---|---|
| Obese | 3% |
| Overweight | 10% |
| At risk of overweight | 17% |
| Normal | 67% |
| Light underweight | 3% |
| Moderate underweight | 0% |
| Severe underweigh | 0% |
We continue to work to improve the quality of life for the children through menus designed specifically for the students’ nutritional needs, workshops on healthy eating and the importance of adequate hydration and exercise, and regular health assessments.
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