Tamale Business - La Candelaria, Talanga, Honduras

La Candelaria is a medium-sized community consisting of approximately 800 residents and is located in Central Honduras. The community is in a mountainous region and most of the residents work in agriculture, growing corn and beans. Much of the food is grown for sustenance, while surplus crops are sold amongst community members or taken to the city. Community members expressed potential business ventures including a tilapia farm and a tamale business. In addition, there was a need for establishment of a community bank, a caja rural, to help fund their new enterprise. The lack of a formal financial institution proved to be a limitation when it came to starting new businesses, so bringing access to more monetary capital that can circulate within the local community was an important goal of the brigade.

Economic Solution

Global Brigade volunteers from the UC Berkeley as well as volunteers from Michigan State University partnered to create a tamale business plan as well as a recommendation for the caja rural.

The project is still in its planning stages, but Global Brigade volunteers were able to lay the foundation that would allow the community members to launch their tamale business and community bank. Some resources and materials that were left for community leaders and members to utilize were qualitative market research and written plans as well as an Excel sheet with formulas calculated fixed and variable costs associated with the business that can be edited over time by the locals themselves. In terms of the caja rural, the written plan included both a short-term and long-term recommendation proposing percentile breakdowns for shareholder dividends, interest rates, and suggested savings.