Projects
MercyPets has SIX active projects at the moment. This page includes details of the five projects that are active and two projects that have been wound up for various reasons. MercyPets is making a REAL DIFFERENCE in the lives of children affected by hunger. MercyPets makes annual grant donations to partnering institutions that provide nutritional support to children.
Erma's House is MercyPets' newest and latest project beginning is January 2024. In partnership with Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley, MercyPets has adopted the nutritional needs of the children who visit Ermas's House for supervised visitation. In a perfect world, parents would not need to have supervision visitation with their children. But we do not live in a perfect world. As parents work out their personal issues, it remains important for them to retain and perhaps repair their relationship with their children in a safe environment. Erma's House provides that safe environment and MercyPets will provide the nutritional for the children during these times of visitation.
Families Forward Project, Dayton. This was MercyPets' first project. The project was created in partnership with the Families Forward Initiative at Kiser Elementary School in Dayton, OH. The initiative worked with the Family Engagement Events which were held quarterly. These events provided families with an opportunity for a shared meal at the school, prepared by the project partners at the House of Bread, and a fun and educational topic to share with families. At the end of the evening, families who register were provided a take home bag of groceries to recreate the health family meal at home. At each event, all students also received at least one book to take home to promote family literacy and reading at home. With an average of 80 attendees each event, this was a very successful project. This project became defunct during the COVID pandemic because schools were closed. A new initiative replaced it.
Sor Lucia Rohè Recovery Center, Guatemala. The second project is at the
Sor Lucia Rohè Recovery Center, Guatemala City, Guatemala, through Food For The Poor Inc. This project remains active. The project benefits approximately 160 children who are in recovery at Center. The Sor Lucia Rohè Recovery Center is a temporary home for children in need of physical and psychological recovery as well as injury and diseases as a result of abuse and/or negligence. Many families of the children are poor and do not have the means to purchase food or provide safe shelter. The center provides healthy and balanced meals to the children. The mission of the staff is to restore them to physical and mental health, so they can return to their homes and live healthy lives.
Matagalpa Nutritional Center, Nicaragua. Just a year after its founding, MercyPets adopted a third institution to provide nutritional support to children - The Matagalpa Nutritional Center in Nicaragua. Unfortunately, the political situation compelled MercyPets to wind down the project accomplished through Food For the Poor. At the time it was active, there were approximately 30 children there at any given time. MercyPets helped provide milk and perishable food items to the children.
City Soleil, Haiti. On its second anniversary on December 2019, MercyPets expanded to City Soleil, Haiti. This project remains active. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Apart from the political unrest and deep-rooted corruption, Haiti is vulnerable to devastating storms and hurricanes. More recently, two earthquakes in 2010 killed approximately 316,000 people. Since then, there have been two major hurricanes in 2016 and 2018 which killed scores of people and displaced many more. MercyPets is patterning with Sr. Marie Päesie to feed the children in the poorest slums in City Soleil. Sr. Päesie works to provide education, nourishment and religion classes to these children and give them hope of a future. Mercypets will provide food assistance to these children, who without our help, would be hungry and starve. We literally are saving lives here!
In August 2020, Mercy inaugurated its latest project and replaced the Families
Forward Project in Dayton, OH. In partnership with Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley, MercyPets will provide baby food and baby formula to mothers who are unable to breast feed and cannot afford baby food for their newborn. This latest MercyPets project remains active and serves the most vulnerable lives in the city of Dayton in Ohio.
The Saving Families From Hunger project in Villavicencio, Columbia seeks to provide nutritional support to mothers and children by delivering a monthly food package that complements their daily diet. The project in Columbia is the sixth project and begun on the 5th anniversary of MercyPets in 2022. This project will benefit approximately 200 people with nutritional packages designed for the needs of children and pregnant women. It is a holistic project that targets children and their families so that children are not merely provided nutrition but mothers and families are trained to continue appropriate nutritional practices.
Los Achiotes Feeding Center, Honduras. This project began in July 2023. The Los Achiotes Children's Feeding Center project seeks to feed hungry elementary school and kinder-aged children by constructing a feeding center in Los Achiotes, Honduras. Many children attend school not knowing when they will have their next meal. As such, malnutrition can affect the children's physical, mental and emotional health. MercyPets works with Food For The Poor to provide nutrition to the children of 74 families.