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Organization	Fundacion Via Cocina
Region	Colombia
Website	Website
Facebook	Facebook
Twitter	@Twitter
ProjectLeader	('Brian Johnston',)

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Via Cocina teaches motivated low income Colombians and Venezuelans in Medellin to transform local produce into sugar-free, non-fried healthy international dishes: combined with personalized small business training, participants combat diet-related health problems with normally unavailable high quality affordable food in low income neighborhoods. We've been renovating for months, exhausted all credit, and need a little help to finish the spaces where participants can cook and sell to the public.

Challenge

Colombia is a beautiful country with an abundance of fruits and vegetables, but many people have never learned how to convert them into delicious healthy dishes; in low income communities, people struggling to make ends meet copy the businesses of their neighbors, with block after block lined with unhealthy fried foods, and more than 40% of Colombian deaths attributed to diet-related illnesses. Culturally there is a lack of business/financial planning knowledge: many businesses run at a loss.

Long-Term Impact

Our project has multiple long-term benefits for families through economic development, better education, better budgeting/planning, healthier lifestyles, less prevalence of diet-related illnesses in the communities (obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, etc); it is my life project, long-term, touching thousands of low income Colombians.