My work at Fabretto

While I don't intend on posting multiple blogs a day like it may appear now, I figured I'd take some time while I'm waiting for my ride to leave to give a bit of an overview of what I'll be doing here, now that I have a better idea myself.

I'm officially helping with a complete analysis of their meal program. For the first piece, I'm working on understanding the nutritional requirements for school-aged children (as published by organizations like the WHO and PAHO). Then, I'm matching that against the three food staples that Fabretto currently provides children, all of which are donated. They have rice with soy, a vegetable soup mix and refried beans (from, if you can believe it, Taco Bell - I love those beans!)

Once I see how these three staples stack up against the requirements, I need to start finding the holes and trying to figure out how to fill them. It will be a bit of a challenge because they need non-perishable and inexpensive foods in large quantities, and the main deficiencies I'm already noticing are calcium and protein. May have to get creative there. Suggestions welcome!

After I look at the menu, the next piece will involve a cost analysis of the logistics for this food - both to see if they can do better on pricing and timing of deliveries, and also to get a better idea of the true cost it takes to move a container of rice for the purpose of budgeting. Should be interesting - while I did one logistics project at work, I'm no expert on lean processes and just in time. Should be a learning experience.

Mixed in with the actual number crunching, I will be spending about 1/3 of my time on site looking at how the meal program is run (and playing with kids!) I get to do a trip up to the mountains in a couple weeks too, to see the schools there.

All in all, I'm extremely excited about the work I'll be doing here because I think it's really interesting and important. It should make up for the fact that I'm waking up with random critters in my house!