All profits from Bistro 3846 will be set aside for Mano Amiga.

August 3, 2010. Manila, Philippines. The staff and families of Everest Academy in Manila are exploring some unusual options to support their local Mano Amiga school, which gives underprivileged children a quality education and a way out of the cycle of poverty.

A new healthy food bistro and an online garage sale have opened up alternative ways of giving to Mano Amiga.

A Fresh Take on Food

Forget the greasy chicken nuggets and frozen hamburgers of your average school cafeteria. Bistro 3846 is bringing on the couscous with tomatoes and herbs, the lean chicken tinola with sayote, and the ginger scented rice.

A new initiative spearheaded by three Everest parents and one staff member, Bistro 3846 is a food and catering business with two main objectives: to beef up the Mano Amiga scholarship fund and to provide truly healthy, natural food for the Everest Academy community.

Led by general manager and head chef Amelia de los Reyes Alba (a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu London and a school parent) Bistro 3846 will be hosted by Everest Academy as the school’s lunch program for the 2010-2011 academic year. In the future, it will also provide a broader range of food services to the entire

	Healthy, nutritious food based on a philosophy of family values.

community. All profits will be set aside for Mano Amiga.

The project is supported by a chic Bistro 3846 web site, where parents can download the monthly menu, keep up with bistro news, see the faces of the women behind the project, and view the four core values (choices, connection, charity, and community) that are behind the bistro.

In its manifesto, or mission statement, the web site states, “We recognize the inherent relationship between nutrition and education. Proper nourishment is a pre-requisite to proper education. We need to build healthy bodies to be able to feed hungry minds.”

“We are compelled to set an environment that transmits good virtues and values through the everyday experience of eating. Families and society in general need to appreciate the true value of eating together and being in communion with each other.”

In addition to the monthly menu offering, the bistro also created a school herb garden to meet part of the cafeteria’s herb requirements and educate the Everest schoolchildren about the properties and flavors of various herbs.

For more information about Bistro 3846, visit the web site at www.bistro3846.com.

Online Garage Sales

When dollars (of Filipino pesos) run short, there are still other ways to give. Mano

	A glimpse of the herb garden, which is both a source of food and a teaching tool for the children.

Amiga Academy donors can now donate the proceeds of sales of their unwanted possessions, from old bikes and lamps to collections of books and bird cages.

The school recently became a member of www.buyandshare.org, which is a kind of online garage sale service that allows sellers to donate the proceeds to a charity of their choice. People who wish to make direct cash donations can also do so through the site, which allows users to register for free.

Once sellers have sold their merchandise, which will also be offered through www.buyandsellplus.org,  they will receive an acknowledgement letter from the school thanking them for their donation. Profits from all sales will be transferred directly to Mano Amiga.

Learn more about how Mano Amiga is lifting up underprivileged children and families in the Philippines at the Mano Amiga Manila blogspot:  http://manoamigapilipinas.blogspot.com/