We want to give a big shout-out to the Chapala Sunrise Rotary Club! For the past two months they have given Lakeside Presbyterian Church several VERY generous donations to help supply despensas to families who needed extra help during the economic shutdown. Typically, the church gives out about 40 despensas per month. Between May 10 and July 10, we were able to distribute about 335 more—besides our usual 40! That’s more than 4X in addition per month!

We appreciate the donations, of course, but the Chapala Sunrise Rotary also did a wonderful job helping us to identify many people in need. While the economy has opened up and many of these families are now back at work, some continue to need our help. On Saturday, the church session voted to continue help an extra 102 families for the next two months, now using church funds. We will continue to evaluate the needs of these families.

We are blessed!

The question we’re often asked is: How much does a despensa cost? It’s a very reasonable $210 pesos. We are always comparing our despensas with the ones given by other organizations. We want to be sure we’re getting the best value. If you hear about a despensa that’s only $100 pesos, it probably doesn’t offer the quantity of food we do. We also provide shelf-stable staples, not fruits and vegetables. As you know, fruits and vegetables are quite inexpensive in our area.