FEED Riviera Maya

The Riviera Maya is 100km (60 miles) of white sand beaches and aqua blue seas from Cancun to Tulum and is littered historical Mayan ruins that date back over 2,000 years. The Riviera Maya attracts over 7.2 million tourists every year, and due to COVID-19, all tourism has stopped, and huge communities of people are in desperate need of food and water. In a matter of weeks, we have gone from one of the wealthiest areas of Mexico to watching our neighbours run out of food and water.

I visited a community church behind me asking if I could help they replied that they have about 100 families that will run out of food next week and they are concerned about another 300 families in the following week. As well, the church is worried about 50-75 elderly people living on their own that will also run out of food in the next week or two.

If you have visited the Riviera Maya, these families would be the quite lady that cleans your room, the gardener that cares for the grounds you love and the cooks that prepared your meals. They are also the thousands of support staff you do not see delivering food, alcohol and other supplies to the resort. And the unseen many cleaning your sheets and towels daily, so you enjoy our stay.

Many of the large resorts have done their best, but without income from tourism, they can only do so much. For them, the most important thing is that they have enough cash to start again once this is all over as the long term solution is that the resorts start-up and the people get their jobs back. So please, let´s not blame the resorts and other large employers as they need to survive and eventually give people their jobs back.

If you want to blame someone, the Government is an excellent place to start. But blaming them does not feed the people next week, nor do they have the resources to feed so many in need. And if the Government does come with food, it will be the basics, and there will still be a need for things like diapers, baby formula and shoes for children.

Furthermore, these families do not have access to proper medical care, and they are not able to self-isolate because they cannot store food for longer than a few days. They are used to living off a weekly payment and no longer have the ability to feed themselves or buy water.

Now, although the numbers are high, I believe, as a global community, we can do something significant. Each home has about 4-5 people on average, and each home will need about $5 essential food to make it through the better part of a week.

Each $5 package of food would consist of the following:
1-1.5kg (3.5lbs) of rice
1kg (2.2lbs) of beans or lentils
One bag of Pasta
1/2 kg (1lb) of oats
1L (1/4 gallon) powdered Milk
500ml of cooking oil
Salt + Several hot peppers
Drinking water.

Yes, for $5, you can feed a family for about a week.

UPDATES:

GOOD PACKAGES/HAMPERS

Thanks to overwhelming support we have delivered over 1,150 packages/hampers of food and started looking for more families in need. We are committed to helping feed 300 families a week and are running short on donations as every week we have more and more families that have run out of savings. The government tells us that the resorts will not open until the middle of June now, meaning we need to find more donations to continue to support those that we are feeding.

BABY FORMULA

Thousands of mothers are out of work and unable to afford baby formula. Unfortunately, being that they had to return to work shortly after the babies birth, they are not able to breastfeed and if they don´t get baby formula fast, many babies will go without. The church has a list of families a just under 100 families in need and we are ready to buy and deliver. We just need your help. It costs between $7-10 for two weeks of formula, so if you want to donate strictly to baby formula, then please put "Baby Formula" in the comment section when you donate.

Now back to the original post.....

Many of us have lost our jobs and livelihoods, but I do think we can all donate $5 to feed a family for a week. (or $7-10 for baby formula.)

Then the second and most important part, please find two other people that are willing to donate. If you find two people, and then those two people find two people, and those two find two people... Suddenly we are using this virus thing to solve a problem caused by a virus.

So please, hit the Donate NOW button, leave your $5 and try to find two people that would be willing to do the same.

And if you have already given to other causes this week, then please, if you see the need share on social media and think of us next week.

Thank you to you all,
Dean Sanderson

About Me.

I am a wedding photographer here in the Riviera Maya, Mexico and you can see my website at www.deansandersonweddings.com. I have the best clients in the world and a bustling business until all the planes stopped due to CODIV-19. As a result, my business has completely stopped, I have no income, and I too, am struggling financially.

I have two little girls aged 5 and 7 that are the light of my life. They live in England, and I used to visit them every two weeks, but now with no income and no flights, I´m not sure when I will be able to see them again. I talk with the girls every other day, and their mother (my ex) has been great about getting them on the phone so that we keep our connection, but we both miss each other dearly.

I am also engaged to an amazing woman, Cynthia, here in Mexico. We planned our wedding for August 1, 2020, but we have had to postpone as without any income, we cannot afford the wedding. She also owns a business that sells and installs kitchens to people building new homes and renovating. Her business is not functioning because the Government has ordered everyone home, and as a result, she has lots of bills, five employees that rely on her and no income.

We also realize that we are very privileged compared to the others in my community and are motivated to help, and hope you join us in helping the people around us because everyone deserves food and water.