A Simple Box of Food - 2024

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Hello All!

Two years ago, we launched our first GoFundMe for our “A Simple Box of Food” program.

And last year, with the generosity of so many people, we surpassed our goal of $5,000—because of you and so many like you, we raised $6,000—and we were able to distribute:

* 100 'Simple Boxes of Food' that were curated specifically for us. We chose the items based on what we've learned the people in the valley like to eat (yes, it's not all healthy, but it is what they like, and it is Christmas!). These boxes gave a family of four (4) food for a week. They weighed 39.7 pounds!

* 60 'Simple Kid Boxes' that had a large bag of Animal Crackers, a large bag of assorted candy, Got Manners™ coloring books, a box of colored pencils, and a cool colored pencil sharpener.

* 40 sacks of high-quality rice. These sacks weighed 25 lbs. These were given to the very poorest families that had already been identified.

* 40 - 4.5-liter bottles of vegetable oil. These were also given to the very poorest families that had already been identified.

Our goal for A Simple Box of Food-2024 is to give out 100 'Simple Boxes of Food' that are curated specifically for us, 60 'Simple Kid Boxes', 100 25 lb.-sacks of high-quality rice, and 100 4.5-liter bottles of vegetable oil.

Which means that this year we are setting an audacious goal of $10,000!

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For those of you unfamiliar with “A Simple Box of Food,” let me give you an idea of what we do.

My wife and I live in a place called the Yunguilla Valley, in the Azuay province of Ecuador. It’s a place where simply giving water and nutrients to plants makes them thrive.

And over the last eight years, Codie—with the help of a local worker—has turned our land into a lush forest of greens, reds, oranges, and whites and blessed us with more fruit than we can possibly eat on our own.

We even have beehives that bring us honey with the exquisite taste of our land and its foliage.

I would say that we have everything one could ask for because this is a paradise on Earth.

But that’s not entirely true. Because just around the corner, or up or down the valley, there are hundreds of people who go hungry on a regular basis.

They are the locals who can trace their family trees to this area as far back as the 1800s. Generations that have lived here, poor, and held under the weight of never having enough education or nutrition to allow them to make a better life for themselves.

These are people who work hard with their hands, digging posts, moving stones, cutting sugar cane, or sweating in the hot sun picking weeds, just to earn $22 a day.

Just so they and their families can eat the next day. Or so that their kids can pay for a ride on the local taxi truck to school instead of walking 6 to 7 kilometers (5 miles) each morning before class.

They do the backbreaking work that the upper class won’t do. All day, every day but Sunday, because these are religious people who believe in a God, even in the cycle of their never-ending poverty.

Many families went hungry during the two years of COVID-19 that struck Ecuador harder than most countries. Many adults skipped eating dinner so their children would have food.

Yet through it all, they remain some of the happiest people I’ve ever met.

And so, because of who they are, six years ago, we decided that besides the help we offered here and there throughout the year, we wanted to ensure that these hard-working families had a joyous Christmas of abundance.

We began by having one family come and spend Christmas day with us as our guests, not as workers. We put out a spread of food like they had never seen and even bought toys for their children.

The father told us it was “the best Christmas he had ever had.” Not because of the food and gifts (though he was very thankful for those), but because his family was proud of him… for having built a relationship with us as he helped Codie plant life into our property. He beamed with pride.

The following year we still treated him and his family well, but we also wanted to bring some joy to other less fortunate families around us. We bought eighteen ‘canasta’ boxes, which contain enough food for a family of 4 for Christmas day (and a few days afterward) and delivered them, along with small bags of candy for the children.

One man told us simply, with surprise, “Te acordaste de la gente pobre.”

“You remembered the poor people.”

It still makes me tear up thinking about it.

The next year we increased our giving to 27 families, with much the same responses. And the year before last, we gave out 50 boxes with the help of a donation from a local business.

And last year, well, you can see above what we were able to give to these wonderful people.

This year, we want to again bring Christmas joy to our valley.

Our goal for "A Simple Box of Food-2024 is to give out 100 'Simple Boxes of Food' that are curated specifically for us, 60 'Simple Kid Boxes', 100 25 lb.-sacks of high-quality rice, and 100 4.5-liter bottles of vegetable oil.

Which means that this year we are setting an audacious goal of $10,000!

We want every family we deliver to this year to have the extra rice and cooking oil that we had to limit last year to the families facing the most extreme poverty.

But all these people struggle, and we hope to help them feed their families for a month with what we give them.

And so, I’m asking you, our friends, and friends of our friends, and so on, to give with your heart to what we are doing.

Please help us to make this a Christmas that impoverished families can remember. Your $30 donation can feed a family of four, a $50 donation can feed two families on Christmas (but don’t be afraid to give more; plenty are in need).

No child should go to bed on an empty stomach, and no mother or father should have to look at hungry faces that can’t be fed on Christmas morning.

Donate today to bring joy and “Acuérdate de los pobres.”

This year, I would also like to ask a special favor from you. Can you please share information about what we are doing with 10 of your friends or family members?

It’s the only way we can reach our goal this year.

And who knows, maybe someone you know wants to donate to “A Simple Box of Food-2024” as a Christmas present to themselves!

Thank you for taking the time to read about our “A Simple Box of Food-2024” program.

I’ll leave you with this thought, “like our land, simply giving food and water to people makes them thrive.”

Have a happy and healthy holiday season.

Michael and Codie

NOTE: GoFundMe is now adding a tip to itself on every GoFundMe page. Please pay attention to this and adjust or remove it as you see fit. Each GoFundMe program pays a commission to GoFundMe; there is no need to leave them a tip.