We received access to 1,000,000 bananas (and one container was stolen) thanks to the Chiquita Banana Company; the program is managed by the Rotary Club. Each container has 96,000 bananas, packed in 45 pound boxes – about 900 boxes for a total of 40,000 pounds.
One container was stolen – someone intercepted the tractor trailer and convinced the driver to unload 40,000 pounds of bananas at a nearby warehouse. The driver simply backed up and started to unload – I guess he was glad to get unloaded and didn’t check the address. Or perhaps he was threatened or bribed… we don’t know.
But Chiquita was super-understanding and gracious and sent a replacement container of bananas the next day!!
So far, we have distributed almost 400,000 bananas to the villagers where we have our clinic and through many other missions with whom we work, in a sort of mission network.
The bananas have been distributed to many feeding centers, in the poorest areas of Guatemala – thousands of children received bananas to take home to their families, too. Other missions have given bananas to poor families in their areas, including the roughest, toughest and poorest areas of Guatemala City.
More than 4,000 poor families have already received bananas!