History of Operation Feed
 

Operation Feed was started in 1989 to provide bare-subsistence food packages to poor Mexican people in the village of San Juan Cosala who desperately needed assistance. The program was begun by a Mexican couple, Willie and Millie Peniche, who lived in San Juan Cosala and who began by helping feed six very poor families. Willy and Millie continued supplying these families with food for the next six years, until the 1994-1995 devaluation of the peso.

After being hit hard by the peso devaluation, Willie and Millie realized they could no longer
carry the burden of feeding the families by themselves, so they approached their neighbors, Earl and Loretta Smithburg and Jim and Anne Scott, for help. “We took one look into the need of the families that the Peniches were feeding, and we knew that something would have to be done to prevent their starvation. We went to our friends and we developed a program we thought would work,” said Earl Smithburg.

The premise of the program was to secure monthly pledges from the people they approached, with every peso being used to purchase food. An accurate bookkeeping system has been in place since the beginning of the program, and every transaction has been recorded. For 24 years only one delivery was ever missed. This happened in 2007, when a devastating storm and a waterspout sent mud rushing down the mountains and into San Juan Cosala, closing the roads.

In late 2009, when Earl Smithburg and Jim Scott both developed serious health issues and their wives, Loretta and Anne, had their hands full taking care of their loved ones, Arnie and Rosie Mogseth assumed leadership of the program to save it from being abandoned. Arnie and Rosie soon enlisted the help of an “angel,” Agustin Vazquez.

Agustin is the owner and operator of Viva Mexico Restaurant in San Jaun Cosala. His
community leadership and compassion were highlighted when he fed most everyone in the
village following the 2007 waterspout that devasted San Juan Cosala. Thereafter, Agustin
graciously agreed to handle the time-consuming work of ordering and storing, and with the help of a community of volunteers, packaging and delivering the food.

In 2011 Bernie and Penny St. Louis volunteered the use of their building, the St. Louis Building, which is adjacent to the Viva Mexico Restaurant, as a place to store the food and hand out the despensa food packages. This action greatly streamlined the despensa process, as it used to take two hours to deliver the food to despensa recipients. Now the recipients come to the Viva Mexico location to receive their weekly despensa packages. People who are too ill or infirm to make the trip to Viva Mexico still receive home deliveries.

The program requires a great deal of work every week, and over the years many people have served as Operation Feed volunteers. We currently have more than 30 volunteers working in the despensa program. Some of them work to repackage rice and beans, some pack eggs, some help pack the despensa packages, and others use their vehicles to serve as drivers and deliver the food to the elderly and the disabled. Operation Feed volunteers also help with the Clothing Center, the Vision Clinic, and the Scholarship Program. The success of Operation Feed depends on the contributions of our generous donors and our dedicated volunteers.

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