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How the project works:

• Shipped to Casa Hogar Juan Pablo II in Lurín, Peru; home to 72 children, families and staff
• Casa Hogar works with other local orphanages and service organizations to trade the powdered milk for resources
• Casa Hogar also donates milk to local soup kitchens and families across greater Lima.  Last year over 40 sites and hundreds of people received nutritious milk from Wisconsin

How it began:

The following is a true story from the late Fr. Joe Walijewski, a Servant of God and beloved priest of the Diocese of La Crosse who in 1986 founded the orphanage Casa Hogar Juan Pablo II inLurin, Peru, where he ministered until his death on April 11, 2006.  Casa Hogar is still served by a priest from the Diocese of La Crosse today and Fr. Joe’s Cause is open for Sainthood.

When Fr. Walijewski was first stationed at a parish church in Lima, Peru, he saw a little boy playing in the street.  He had been out there all morning, and now it was early afternoon.  Fr. Joe greeted him and asked, “Shouldn’t you be going home?  It’s past lunch time!”  The little boy told him, “It’s not my day to eat.”  That’s right – it’s not my day to eat!  His family was so poor they fed their children on alternate days.

It was because of this level of hunger and malnutrition, and out of a desire to assist Fr. Walijewski in his service to thousands of poor children in Peru, that the Rural Life Committee of the Diocese of La Crosse started “Project Milk” in 1984. Project Milk has a two-fold purpose: to provide milk for the hungry children at the orphanage and the surrounding Peruvian neighborhoods, and to raise awareness of the economic difficulties of our dairy farmers in western Wisconsin (all the dried milk shipped comes from dairy farms). Since its inception in 1984, Project Milk has collected over $1,000,000 and shipped close to 450 tons of dried milk to Peru, thanks to the generous donations of the people of the Diocese of La Crosse. With groups traveling each year to the orphanage, we are now trying to coordinate the arrival of the powdered milk to occur when we have groups present from the Diocese at Casa Hogar.

We hope you will find it in your heart to help Project Milk continue to supply nourishing milk to the children of Casa Hogar and the surrounding neighborhoods, so that no child will have to say, “It’s not my day to eat.”  Know that in doing so you will also be supporting Wisconsin’s dairy farmers.