Oaxaca is a primarily indigenous state in southern Mexico with a population of approximately 3.3 million. According to the 2000 census, Oaxaca is the second-poorest state in Mexico. The average daily income of $4.60 is half the Mexican average, and illiteracy rates at 23 percent are more than double the rest of the country. Approximately 40 percent of those born in Oaxaca live and work in other parts of Mexico, the United States, and Canada, leaving a disproportionate number of women and children in rural villages.

Much of Oaxaca's rural poor survives on a very limited diet based primarily on corn. The lack of diversity in this inadequate diet leads to a deficiency of many amino acids and other essential nutrients necessary for normal development and health.

Because of high demands for energy and essential nutrients from a growing body, infants and children are at a higher risk of malnutrition. Protein/energy malnutrition is the most common and the most severe, leading to stunted growth, development, and learning potential. The effects of malnutrition are both severe and irreversible, often perpetuating the vicious cycle of poverty.

Due to a major public health initiative over the last 10 years, the number of children listed as underweight in Mexico during the 1990s declined by 46 percent (UNICEF, 2004). However, malnutrition still affects one of every four children under five years of age in urban areas and two of every five children under five in rural areas. As a consequence, one in five children between the ages of five and 11 suffers from anemia, as does one in every four pregnant women.