Facts About Our Work in Antigua and Barbuda
Food For The Poor (FFTP) works with primary partner St. Vincent de Paul under the Diocese of St. John’s-Basseterre in Antigua. An important component of FFTP’s assistance to Antigua is through gifts in kind. Antigua became a safe place of refuge for more than 1,800 people from the neighboring island of Barbuda when Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in recorded history, made landfall on Barbuda on Sept. 6, 2017, as a Category 5 storm, destroying 95 percent of the buildings on the island.
More than three years after Hurricane Irma, hundreds of its residents have returned and are slowly rebuilding their lives with the help of nongovernmental organizations.
In March 2020, FFTP responded quickly to the crisis when COVID-19, a respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, became a pandemic. The charity shipped a tractor-trailer load of food and personal hygiene items specifically for COVID-19 relief.
In 2020, the charity shipped two tractor-trailer loads of agricultural tools and nonperishable food.
Food For The Poor built a warehouse for in-country partner St. Vincent de Paul in order to make the storage and distribution of goods more efficient.
Positioned where the Atlantic and Caribbean meet, Antigua is known for reef-lined beaches, rainforests and resorts. Antigua’s English Harbour is a yachting hub and the site of historic Nelson’s Dockyard, now part of a national park. In the capital, St. John’s, the national museum displays indigenous and colonial artifacts. Antigua’s economy is reliant upon tourism, but agriculture also is important. Production on the island consists of the cultivation of cotton, bananas, coconuts, cucumbers, mangoes, sugarcane, other fruits and vegetables and livestock. The agricultural market in Antigua falls under the constraints of limited fresh water supplies and lack of sufficient labor.
The population is approximately 99,175 residents. The Capital is St. John’s and the land area is 281 square kilometers (108 square miles). The language is English and Anglican is their largest religious denomination. The currency is the East Caribbean dollar and the GDP per capita is $21,910.
