UNIVERSO

Church Partnerships: CitiPoint Church | Mount Vernon, WA

Year opened: 2014

Average Attendance: 45 children per day

Universo is a very impoverished neighborhood with many large families.  It is not uncommon to see families with more than 10 children.  The adults in the neighborhood are mostly illiterate and lack access to education and steady employment.  This instability leads to higher instance of abuse and neglect in the families the feeding center serves.  The leaders of the feeding center often speak to parents about this, working to equip them on their parenting skills.  The feeding center is deeply loved in the community and a large number of women volunteer to help out on a regular basis.

Meet the Feeding Center Family:

Roman and Dulce, along with their sons Emanuel and Gael, live in Universo and run the feeding center.  Roman has an autobody shop and Dulce has a papeleria (school/office supply shop) that she opened in front of their house in 2019.  Roman came to Christ through the prison ministry of Amistad Familiar while he was an inmate in the early days of that ministry – he was released from prison in 2000.  Roman and Dulce wanted to serve as feeding center leaders for a long time, so they jumped at the opportunity when it came up.  They also serve as the youth leaders at Amistad, with a passion for reaching teens in their neighborhood and through the church.