The new community center and water project building in La Zapotera.

Harvey Bernier, the onsite project manager for building the community center and water project in La Zapotera reports:

La Zapotera Centro Comunitario opened its doors and the first meal was served to 83 elementary school children—thanks to Lakeside Presbyterian Church, Tepehua Centro Comunitario, Todd Stong, Gerardo Padilla Puga, and several other key volunteers. Breakfast will be served three times a week to start, with the eventual aim to provide a nutritious breakfast every school day.

In addition, a bazaar has been set up with generous donations from Tepehua and the surrounding community.

Jai Cartwright, Karen Bernier and other volunteers will be holding classes for the La Zapoterians in such things as cheesemaking, bread making, and more. Their goal is to provide education in better nutrition and life skills in order to alleviate diseases caused by poor nutrition, poor water and lack of education.

This is great news! Lakeside Presbyterian initiated and underwrote much of the funding for this project and will continue to provide food supplies for breakfast for school children, while the local community will do the cooking. We hope this will be a model for other community projects near the lake. Thank you all for making this happen!