Beyond The Plate – A Podcast by Food For The Poor · Food For The Poor

Ep. 25 - A Shy Teen Raised over $100K to Build Homes, but Why?

October 14, 2025·29 min·2 clips

James Meyer shares the bedtime story his adoptive mother told him, revealing his birth mother named him 'Baby Ronaldo' and gave him up so he could learn to read.

Host interviews James Meyer, a 19-year-old adopted from Guatemala, who shares how a childhood lesson about water waste sparked a mission that raised over $100,000 to build homes in Guatemala. He reveals the profound motivation from his birth mother's sacrifice and details creative fundraising efforts from duct-taping his principal to presenting to community groups.

As heard by us

A community-driven effort to help families secure homes becomes a plainspoken story of steady generosity.

The piece turns one person’s effort to help families secure homes into a study of how ordinary institutions can make a big goal feel possible.

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Why you'd press play

Hear how a student with an adoption story turned a school fundraiser into homes for families.

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