Statement of Achievement

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes that everyone has the right to an adequate
standard of living that ensures health and well-being of themselves; especially, food. Furthermore,
the Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition proclaims the inalienable
right of men, women, and children not to suffer from these ailments in order to be able to develop
fully and maintain their physical and mental capacities. Unfortunately, in Colombia the
consequences of insufficient access to food are real and colossal, affecting a considerable
percentage of the population in the country.

According to the World Food Program (October 2020) 10.9 million people have insufficient food in
Colombia, 29.2% of Colombian households eat twice a day. At a local level, the outlook is critical
since Cartagena is the city with the highest level of poverty and extreme poverty of the capital cities
of Colombia. In Cartagena, 34% of children in early childhood live in extreme poverty and there are
more than 16,400 children who suffer from malnutrition. 252,992 people from Cartagena are poor,
and they cannot obtain a minimum monthly income of COP $ 257,433 (USD $ 70), that is, they
have an income of USD $ 2.3 per day.

Considering all this, the work carried out by Catalina makes it possible to contribute to the
improvement of the nutritional, health and social conditions of children and teenagers in Cartagena
through the creation of a unique and innovative project in Colombia called "ALMA". an integrated
system for the recovery and distribution of cooked food, which had fed 23,339 malnourished
children living in extreme poverty. ALMA changed the fate of hundreds of tons of food that were
destined to end up in landfills and transformed them into servings that nourish and transform the
present and future of children living in extreme poverty in Cartagena, cooked food from social
events, restaurants, hotels, and Business.

Cartagena is an international destination for social and business luxury events, as well as the main
destination nationwide. In Cartagena, multiple events such as weddings, summits, congresses,
seminars, and events that demand a high amount of food and that produce alarming amounts of
waste due to non-consumption are held weekly. Around 1am the buffet closes and all the food that
was not served goes to the garbage, surplus food from the event in perfect condition of the highest
quality end up contaminating the environment, in the same city where there are more than 16,000
children with malnutrition, which is unthinkable and unforgivable. As a result of this, Catalina
creates ALMA to avoid this waste of cook food. ALMA has established very strict protocols for the
recovery of cooked food, with personnel who guarantee the safety of the food throughout the
process. Food is recovered in samovars and pots that at the end of the service were not served to
guests or diners, which is why it would be thrown away. Food already served on plates is never
recovered.

ALMA collects food directly at the source, has adequate vehicles for the transport of said food that
is taken to a suitable place where it is stored correctly to be later regenerated in a kitchen and
finally distributed to community kitchens in sectors of extreme poverty with a high prevalence of
malnutrition. By doing this, it is possible to increase the quantity, quality, and availability of food to
children who do not have a guaranteed daily diet, since their parents must go out every day to earn
money through informal jobs, without any certainty of being able to do so. 252,992 people from
Cartagena live with USD $ 2.3 but there are even days that they cannot get it, on those days neither
they nor their children can eat, and as a direct consequence there are more than 16,484
malnourished children under five years of age.
All the cooked food that was to be thrown away after not being consumed by guests or diners, is
recovered by ALMA, and transformed to guarantee the quantity and availability of food for
thousands of children who lived with hunger and without the certainty of being able to eat every
day.

Through ALMA, the health, and the development and growth of children's brains are impacted.
Calming immediate hunger and improving their nutritional status allows them to have opportunities
to become an adult who can contribute to the progress of their country. The social impact of ALMA
prevents hunger from becoming a frighteningly vicious cycle: those who live in poverty have no
way of accessing food to nourish themselves; malnutrition reduces learning capacities, someone
without a solid education has no other way, apart from illegality or informality, to get out of poverty.
This problem makes child malnutrition one of the main obstacles to social and economic growth in
the region.

ALMA's environmental impact is based on reducing pollution and the generation of greenhouse
gases produced by food in its decomposition in landfills. The largest carbon footprint within wasted
food occurs in the final phase, consumption. If food waste were a country, it would rank third among
the top emitters of greenhouse gases, after China and the United States. By throwing away all
these millions of tons of food, all the resources invested in its production are also thrown away:
water, time, fertilizers, everything goes to waste along with food. The water footprint associated
with food waste, through its agricultural production, is approximately 250 km3.

"Children do not starve, they die of indifference" Catalina always says and it is the engine that
prompted her to work hard with conviction to feed thousands of malnourished children avoiding the
waste of cooked food. ALMA is the only system that recovers cooked food in Colombia. So far it
has managed to feed 23,339 children and their families.

One of the most significant achievements that Catalina has had in the creation of ALMA is that she
has achieved everything without any kind of political, religious, or international cooperation support.
Which has made the path more difficult but has allowed her the freedom to make clear policies to
benefit children without discriminations of any kind as to race, color, sex, religion, and national or
social origin.

ALMA contributes to the fulfillment of eight of the Sustainable Development Goals, SDG: end of
poverty, zero hunger, health and well-being, reduction of inequalities, sustainable cities and
communities, responsible production and consumption, climate action, and alliances to achieve the
objectives.