Skip to content
United In God's Work
  • Log In
  • User Login
  • Search

Food For The Poor

Donate Now
Give Monthly
  • Extreme Poverty
  • Malnutrition
  • Housing
  • Drinking Water
  • Vulnerable Children
  • Medical Care
  • Extreme Poverty
  • Malnutrition
  • Housing
  • Drinking Water
  • Vulnerable Children
  • Medical Care
Donate Now
Give Monthly

A New Kind of Retirement

November 22, 2021May 4, 2018 Victoria Green

A trip to Jamaica with loving donors and retirees inspires Food For The Poor’s Director of Public Relations, Kathy Skipper.

Craig Moss-Solomon, a director in the FFP-Jamaica office, explains the dire gang situation to Marv and Ellie Walworth near a school in Kingston, Jamaica. Leaders of the school would like to move the school to a safe location.

What does retirement look like to you? Is it a permanent vacation, a part-time job, volunteer work?

I’m 60 now and I think a lot about how retirement might shape up for my husband and me. Traveling last month with Food For The Poor donors from Grand Junction, Colorado, I was curious about how they ended up living out their retirement serving the poor.

On the way to visit the poorest of the poor in Jamaica, we talked about their professional lives and how they now spend their days.

Marv Walworth was an electrical mechanical engineer and Ellie Walworth taught second-grade for 19 years, after staying home with their four children. Married 56 years next month, they have seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

They first learned of Food For The Poor when a retired priest visited their parish. Over time, visiting priests would stay with them at their home. But their spirit of generosity didn’t start late in life.

“Both of us had mothers who were always giving, always caring for someone who didn’t have as much. We were an immigrant family, and we didn’t have a lot, but we were taught to share,” said Ellie, whose family background is Hungarian.

Food For The Poor donors Marv and Ellie Walworth enjoy a performance during the inauguration of Mason Hall Primary School’s Infant Department, St. Mary, Jamaica.

One of her simple joys now is baking her lasagna to share with the soup kitchen that serves about 100 local homeless people.

Marv said that as an engineer he was always checking the most efficient way to help someone, to give them a hand up so that they could then work to have a better life.

“We have found that in Food For The Poor. Everything we have experienced is how effective they are in using our funds,” Marv said.

Now that they have retired from their professional lives, they are working on behalf of the poor, including traveling to Jamaica in April to visit a family of children they housed, celebrate with students who have a new school, and reunite with residents of a village where hope and industry has replaced despair.

Food For The Poor donors Ellie and Marv Walworth cut a cake in celebration of her birthday while at the charity’s office in Kingston, Jamaica.

“I remember when we told our friends we were traveling to Jamaica, they said, ‘Oh, you’re going to Ocho Rios.’ “Oh no, we’re not going to Ocho Rios,” she said with a laugh.

Ellie celebrated her birthday in Food For The Poor’s Jamaica office with a cake and the knowledge that their vacation photos would yield more than memories of a day at the beach.

They make this kind of retirement seem so real and doable, even for people like my husband and me.

Jean Bryan, principal of the school in Mason Hall that the Walworths inaugurated on their trip, said she was grateful for the couple who left the comfort of their life in Grand Junction to help people they had never met.

“And they in their years, in their senior years, took on this project. Love takes time, courage and true benevolence,” Bryan said. “Those things God has bestowed on Marv and Ellie.”


Posted in From the Field, Our Team
Tagged Caribbean, charity, children, education, food for the poor, fundraise, Jamaica, Missions, travel

Blog For The Poor

Blog For The Poor showcases uplifting stories from the field, project updates and insights into Food For The Poor’s work throughout the Caribbean and Latin America.

Impact In Your Inbox

Thank you for joining FFTP!

Subscribe today to get inspiring stories sent directly to you.

SIGN UP
Number Example: 1234567890
SUBMIT

Recent Blog Posts

  • How Treated Water Improves Lives
  • Why is water access important for children in developing countries?
  • 3 Ways Food For The Poor Volunteers Fight Food Insecurity
  • The Heart of Giving: 6 Added Benefits of Volunteering
  • What is child sponsorship at Food For The Poor?
  • 3 Ways Angels Of Hope Make A Lasting Impact Through Sponsorship

Popular Blog Tags

  • food for the poor
  • Haiti
  • children
  • poverty
  • housing
  • Angels of Hope

*ANIMAL HUSBANDRY: Food For The Poor has ongoing animal husbandry and apiary programs that support impoverished families and communities. The funds that are raised from animals and bees in this catalog are used to support the aforementioned programs.

**HOUSING: Because of the size and need of the average family, for $9,800, we build all houses with two bedrooms and a living area, sanitation and a water component, a cooking area, a sink, furnishings, lighting and structural elements to withstand severe weather conditions. You will receive a Certificate of Appreciation with a photograph of the family in front of their secure and comfortable home.

Food for The Poor
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Twitter
Linkedin

About Us

  • Why FFTP?
  • Mission and Vision
  • Leadership
  • Financial Information
  • Newsroom
  • Careers
  • Contact Us

Help Now

  • Give Monthly
  • Donate Now
  • Child Sponsorhip
  • Legacy and Gift Planning
  • Corporations and Foundations
  • Major Giving
  • Other Ways to Help

Our Work

  • Problems We Solve
  • Where We Serve
  • Your Impact
  • Donor Pledge
  • Projects
Faithful Stewards
BBB Accredited Charity
Platinum Transparency 2022 - Candid.

Food For The Poor is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Contributions are tax-deductible under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3). Tax ID: #59-2174510

6401 Lyons Road, Coconut Creek, Florida 33073 USA
800-487-1158
© 2022 Food For The Poor

  • Privacy Policy
  • Security
  • Fundraising Disclosures
  • FAQ
  • Site Map
  • Español