12 Mayo 2012

This morning I travelled to a neighboring town to give a nutrition talk to the soup kitchen of Sister Antonia.

Sister Antonia is known throughout the canyon because she was a New York Maryknoll nun that moved to the canyon in 1971 and stayed here until her death in 2010. For 60 years she had a significant influence on feeding and educating the youth and elderly of the pueblo de Yanque.
Every morning she, and two other sisters fed about 500 people breakfast. So, when she passed, my friend, and director of Quechua Benefit, Mike Safely promised to make sure her soup kitchen continued.
You might remember when I wrote about translating last year for the meeting that facilitated this transition from the church funding the project to the NGO funding it (tiff was here then, and made me take a bath before going to the meeting).

I was translating for Mike again on a visit to the kitchen, and we had the realization that they are serving a very traditional peruvian diet to about 70 families every day. Aka, high in carbohydrates and other sugars, low in protein and vitamins. The funny part is they have awesome green houses, and are almost completely self sufficient. The only things they purchase are sugar, rice, soy powder, and carrots. So, Tim and I paired up to try and figure out how they can use what they have more efficiently (planting wise) and feed the families more nutritiously.
While one of the nuns is  a bit older, she was was resistant to changing what they do, but polite. The younger nuns and the gentleman who helps manage the fields were extremely receptive, especially when we talked about them possibly making money off of planting things like beets and quinoa. The young Sister Victoria really perked up when I mentioned pickling vegetables. Apparently Sister Antonia did that too, and I think she felt a connection to her as we discussed the recipe for pickled cucumbers and beets.

It was a very good day.
Tim and I were only facilitators. We told no one what to do, only presented what foods are more nutritious, and had the marker and paper ready as the locals themselves developed their plan of action, then hung the plan in their kitchen next to their "my plate" breakdown.