October 10, 2008

The US Rice Producers Association’s promotional campaign with UN KILO DE AYUDA in Mexico is getting stronger every day. Families residing in communities where there are training sessions are eating rice at least three times a week.

Before our promotions began, people in these areas did not eat rice at all even though it was delivered in their nutritional package. Since mothers did not know how to prepare rice, it was fed to chicken. Now, lifestyles have begun to change and mothers desire to learn more about rice, different ways to prepare it and have even started making up dishes of their own.

Diconsa, whose purpose is improving nutrition through basic and complementary products, which are given in nutritional packages to rural communities with high poverty margins, is participating more and more with USRPA’s program. Héctor Gutiérrez, from Zongolica, supports USRPA’s efforts by saying, “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” and USRPA is teaching people how to fish.

October 24, 2008

Tlazocamate means “Thank You” in Nahuatl. The US Rice Producers Association’s representatives learned this native word while conducting a campaign in Coxcatlan de los Reyes in the Nahuatl mountains near Zongolica, a city in Mexico. Numerous participants told representatives tlazocamate (thank you) for teaching them the nutritional and economical benefits of rice. During this event in Coxcatlan de los Reyes, 2000 people gathered to receive benefits such as food, education and health support through the Program Oportunidades, which provided an energetic and high nutritional value package of food and a discount of 15% for their purchases at Diconsa Stores. One thousand five hundred nutritional packages were delivered, and participants saved more than $31,500 MXP.

Diconsa delivers basic products to those communities highly margined by activating a communitarian store, which is managed by people from the community. Through many avenues, they also teach people to be self sufficient. The cooperation between Disconsa and USRPA’s program, “Consume Arroz USA Mas por Menos,” is born through these shared goals.

USRPA teaches participants how to cook rice and breaks the long-standing belief that rice is only for big events or parties such as weddings or christenings, which shows communities rice is delicious, nutritious, cheap and good for everyday use.

December 5, 2008

With the addition of two more states, the school lunch program now reaches the most representative population in Mexico. The State of Hidalgo helps to concentrate programs in the central region of the country and Nuevo Leon allows the program to reach Monterrey, the second most important and the most industrialized city in Mexico.

The market conditions of these two states are very attractive to the program, which now serves 25 percent of the country’s population. The US Rice Producers Association’s school lunch program reaches the consumer market from Tlaxcala to Queretaro through Hidalgo, State of Mexico, Mexico City and Morelos. The people of Monterrey, which is farther north, eat mainly corn or wheat products providing USRPA the opportunity to introduce rice to their diets.

Aims for the campaign in these two states:

· 300 people directly impacted per week.

· 1,500 people indirectly impacted per week.

· Hidalgo is one of the poorest states in the country and most of our demonstrations are rural (80%)

· Monterrey is one of the richest states in the country and most of our demonstrations are urban (80%)

· All of our demonstrations, rural or urban, serve the economically challenged populations.

Hidalgo is one of the poorest rural areas in the country, and Nuevo Leon is one of the highest consumers of junk food. While this presents a challenge, the objective of the program “Consume Arroz Mas Por Menos” has been strategic in choosing these areas, allowing the program to continue to teach the benefits of cooking rice and how to integrate it into a diet for a healthier life.