Country Projects: Mexico

Overview

Food banking in Mexico is coordinated by Asociación Mexicana de Bancos de Alimentos (AMBA); it includes 66 food banks that serve 1.5 million people throughout the country.  The network, which was created in the mid-1990s, is headquartered in Guadalajara and has service offices in 4 other cities. Of Mexico’s 111 million people, nearly 5 million are undernourished and 3.4% of children are underweight.

AMBA helps existing member food banks expand their capacity and works to create food banks in communities where they are needed.  The national network enjoys a very positive relationship with the Federal, State, and Local governments and has established strong partnerships in the food and grocery industry, with the media, and with many other institutions that comprise a strong pool of AMBA’s stakeholders.

GFN’s Involvement

AMBA is one of GFN’s founding partners. We have helped generate significant funding for the network and a number of its member food banks to support:

  • Infrastructure development (trucks, cold storage units, racking systems and warehouse renovations)
  • Public awareness campaigns
  • Water harvesting projects
  • Hiring staff to source food.

GFN has also provided mentoring and technical assistance, as well as numerous scholarships for Mexican delegates to attend the H-E-B / GFN Food Bank Leadership Institute over the last three years.  Two representatives of the Mexican food banking community are members of GFN’s Board of Directors.

Progress

AMBA has enjoyed positive growth both in the numbers of member food banks and the scope of service provided by its network. The network has worked hard in the past couple years to strengthen its food sourcing capacity, both at the national level and at the local food bank level.  This has paid off with double-digit percentage increases in donated food each of the past 2 years.  In addition to successfully soliciting more food, AMBA has worked to enhance the food handling capacity of the network by adding cold storage capacity, warehouse equipment, trucks, etc.  It has built a very strong partnership with the Federal Government resulting in strong legislative initiatives that benefit food banking and charitable in-kind supporters.

Learn more about Asociación Mexicana de Bancos de Alimentos