Last month, the company I work for, SVI, went to a city in central Mexico called Torreón. It is actually a collection of cities not unlike Northwest Arkansas. It is made up of the main city Torreón, Palacio Gomez, and Ciudad Lerdo. As a company, we went there to work in a food bank. The entire Torreón area has a population of just over a million of which, nearly a quarter live at or below the poverty level.

We saw things in that city that were breath-taking. There were times when it felt as though we were in a war torn country in Africa. Dust was blowing. Houses were built out of findings from a refuse heap. It would be hard to experience that and not be moved to act.

I just found a great little site while looking for places to use my OpenID. It is called Menuism and it allows users to rate their local restaurants. It comes as no surprise that I was the first one in Northwest Arkansas to find the site so took the time to rate AQ Chicken House and Famous Daves.

Obviously, there are myriad restaurants in the area, so if you get a chance, put a review of your favorite restaurant… the life you save may be your own.