SEQUIM — On Sunday morning, a team of volunteer cooks will whip up a breakfast of corn tortillas, scrambled eggs with cheese, tomato-chili salsa, black beans, sliced oranges, Raven’s Brew coffee and tea.
This is the 13th annual Mexican breakfast at the Sequim Prairie Grange Hall, 290 Macleay Road. The fundraiser benefits the Mujeres de Maiz Opportunity Foundation, the Sequim-based nonprofit organization co-founded by retired Spanish teacher Judith Pasco.
Volunteers will host Sunday’s breakfast from 8:30 a.m. until noon. Admission is a suggested donation of $10. No advance tickets will be available.
Almost 100 guests attended last year’s breakfast at the grange hall, according to Pasco.
Pasco began the foundation in 2006, with five friends, as a partner to women in Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost state.
In her book, “Somewhere for My Soul to Go: A Place, A Cause, A Legacy,” Pasco writes about the women, their rural communities and her dream of helping girls in Chiapas stay in school.
Mujeres de Maiz — which in English means “women of corn,” Mexico’s sustenance — started out by awarding one scholarship to one young woman.
Since then, the organization has expanded to fund scholarships and enrichment programs for children, eye examinations and glasses and even a community center in the city of San Cristobal de las Casas.
It hosts children’s programs in eight communities now and works with a weaving cooperative made up of women from 10 communities around San Cristobal.
And the woman who received the first scholarship, Yolanda Hernandez, earned a college degree in English and in February was a delegate for the United Nations Winter Youth Assembly, Pasco said.
“She went from being impoverished and very shy and then, at age 28, she was a delegate to the United Nations Youth Assembly,” said Pasco, who met Henandez when she was 15.
Hernandez’ sister, Juana, has earned a degree in computer science and the two sisters have started a weaving cooperative in the home community of Zinacantan, Pasco said.
Support from people on the North Olympic Peninsula grew the foundation through donations and the annual Dia de los Muertos dinner, Pasco said.
All proceeds go to educational programs and projects of Mujeres de Maiz Opportunity Foundation, a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization.
To find out more about the Mujeres de Maiz Opportunity Foundation, see www.MujeresdeMaizOF.org, and for details about Sunday’s Mexican breakfast, call Pasco at 360-809-0393.
