Barranquilla Mothers Establish School Lunch Business
The Association of Mothers from La Playa (ASOMEP) was started by four Barranquilla mothers whose children attended Shakira’s Pies Descalzos School in La Playa. Through a Clinton Foundation- operated program at the school that focuses on providing job skills training to underserved members of the community, the mothers secured jobs in the school cafeteria, where they could both see their children’s development and learn how to prepare nutritious meals at home. Stimulated by this new opportunity, the four women sought the Foundation’s assistance in helping them and 16 other mothers and grandmothers of Pies Descalzos children form a business — ASOMEP — to provide cafeteria services. The women, now skilled in running a cafeteria operation, bid and won the contract to operate the La Playa cafeteria. Today ASOMEP serves daily snacks and lunches to over 1,400 students and has created 20 permanent jobs and 2 seasonal jobs while generating a monthly income of US $15,000. Each woman earns a base salary plus health benefits and all other statutory benefits while at the same time generating a sustainable income for her family and helping schoolchildren access nutritional meals.