Lisa Crawford shows the region of Guatemala she visited in May. Crawford, founder of the Denver chapter of Friends of the World Food Program, was there in the wake of several eruptions of the Pacaya volcano and Tropical Storm Agatha. Helping the devastated villages in poorer parts of the country has now become a mission for the Broomfield-area real estate agent. ( David Jennings )
How to help

Those wishing to get involved with the Denver chapter of the World Food Program can call Lisa Crawford at 720-341-2475 or e-mail wfpusadenver@gmail.com.

Follow the program on Facebook at World Food Program Committee of Denver.

Tax-deductible donations can be made at friendsofwfp.org.

BROOMFIELD -- What began as a simple trip to Guatemala in May as part of the United Nations' World Food Program has turned into a passionate cause for Broomfield-area real estate agent Lisa Crawford.

Crawford, founder of the Denver chapter of the Friends of the World Food Program, was one of eight volunteer coordinators for the U.S.-based nonprofit that builds support for the United Nations program. She toured poor villages to see firsthand World Food Program sustainability projects.

"The only way to get what we're talking about is to see it," said Jessica Alatorre, the Friends of the World Food Program outreach associate who led the tour.

Seeing the people they help "commits you for life to the effort," Alatorre said.

After touring villages, the group returned to Guatemala City and heard the patter of rain -- except instead of raindrops, tiny black pellets came tumbling from the sky.

It was something the locals had seen before.

Recent tremors had caused several eruptions of the Pacaya volcano. The scale of the eruption the volunteers experienced on that Thursday, which covered the city in an inch or two of ash, was new.

Two days later, Tropical Storm Agatha hit, washing the ash into the drainage system and clogging the pipes, which led to massive flooding. That, in turn, caused a giant sinkhole.

Crawford's team was already struck by how the people they met were living hand to mouth; their conditions only worsened after Agatha.

The storm and its after

A mother feeds her baby during World Food Program nutrition training in Guatemala.
effects left 200 dead and 140,000 people displaced, many of them in the areas Crawford and other volunteers had just visited.

In one of those areas, Crawford met a man with a 21/2-year-old daughter.

"The only food he could find to feed his family was tree roots that he boiled," she said.

The World Food Program provided him and others with Vitacereal, a high-nutrition cereal that can be made into porridge, and helped them grow crops which had been washed away by Agatha.

Two of the villages Crawford visited are believed to have been completely submerged and covered in mud.

Crawford said the volunteers had a difficult time when learning that the only thing their families had heard about was the giant sinkhole -- which swallowed an entire factory -- and not the widespread destruction.

"Everyone kept talking about the sinkhole," she said of people and media in the United States.

When Crawford returned, she vowed to help get the word out.