Winter Bulletin 2009/2010 Vol. 25 No.4

Articles: Introduction Plenty in Guatemala	TN Musicians host benefit for Plenty Haiti relief (watch the concert on YouTube)
The Adibe Soy project celebrates 30 years! The UPA-SOYA project Guatemala City’s Urban Poor Scavenge to Survive
Gulf Recovery Heros Homeless in New Orleans Plenty Belize Microgrant Success Story Pine Ridge Gardens

Gulf Recovery Heroes Jim Selin (Books To Kids), Iray Nabatoff (Community Center of St. Bernard Parish) Elaine Langley, RN and Tony Sferlazza, Plenty’s Gulf Recovery Program Field Director) have been helping in the Gulf since right after Hurricane Katrina. Jim Selin and Books To Kids have distributed about 35,000 quality children’s books to schools, community centers and families in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast. Iray has been running the Community Center of St. Bernard Parish that serves hundreds of Parish residents every week with free meals, access to computers with Internet connections, public phones, laundromat, toys, books, clothing, legal aid, prenatal care, yoga classes and movie nights.

(photo by Nikki Jackson) Jim Selin (Books To Kids), Iray Nabatoff (Community Center of St. Bernard Parish) Elaine Langley, RN and Tony Sferlazza

Immediately after Katrina, Elaine was on the front lines administering direct medical care and last year took a job at the West Jefferson Hospital in New Orleans. In her spare time she visits families living in Pointe aux Chenes and on Isle du Jean Charles and helps connect them to support services and Plenty’s home repair crews. Tony, along with Elaine’s husband Calvin and volunteers from the Farm Community in Tennessee and United Peace Relief, has been focused on home repairs. This past October, Tony, with the help of Plenty volunteers Jim Branoff and Jerry Johnston are installing a 4500 sq. ft.  drop ceiling at the Community Center. The material was donated by Home Depot. This will help keep the building warmer in cold weather and cooler in the steamy summer.

Homeless in New Orleans by Val Peterson, Project Director Food Under Claiborne New Orleans was started in April 2008 after multiple homeless camps had been dispersed and consolidated into a tent city underneath I-10 at North Claiborne Avenue. As many as 300 people were living there as of July 2008 when it was disbanded by the New Orleans police. Since then we have been serving every Tuesday, at different locations. Since Katrina homeless population of New Orleans has doubled overwhelming shelters.There are hundreds of people living on the streets and in abandoned houses.

Folks line up for a meal.

They include people with disabilities, laborers and the working poor. Using donations from local produce companies we assemble a hot and healthy meal that usually consists of a green salad, a fruit salad, roast vegetables and either red beans and rice or jambalaya

Our group is entirely volunteer-driven with no stipends or salaries. We consist of a handful of organizers who shop, fundraise and schedule in their spare time and dozens of volunteers who donate their time on Tuesday to make this meal happen. On any given Tuesday at least 10 people are involved throughout our day, which runs from about 9am to 8pm. 

Our plan for the future is to continue to consistently serve our people every Tuesday, rain or shine, into and throughout 2010. To do this we need the continued support from our generous donors to buy essentials like spices, oil, rice, beans, plates, forks, napkins, hot sauce, cups and gasoline. We also desperately need to replace some of our equipment, as some of our coolers have recently broken. We have been lucky enough to be able to use a friend’s van on Tuesdays, but we would like to invest approximately $1000 in a small pickup truck to be used only for our organization.

To everyone who has helped us keep this going, and to everyone who continues to, thank you so much.

2011 Fall Bulletin

Introduction
Guatemala: Project Updates
Pine Ridge: Garden Harvest
Plenty Belize: Solar Water Project
Gulf Coast: Books to Kids, Volunteers
Kids to the Country: Summer 2011
NEW!: Soy in El Salvador

• Plenty Belize
• The Farm Community