Food For The Poor Ships 1,200 Tons of Relief for Haiti So Far
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Donations: http://www.foodforthepoor.org/haitiquake & 1.800.487.1158
Food For The Poor
Media: Interviews available with Executive Director Angel Aloma, and team in Port-au-Prince
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Jan. 21, 2010) – In the nine days since Haiti was rocked by an earthquake, Food For The Poor has acquired and begun to ship more than 1,200 tons of relief items. Many of those items already are in place in Port-au-Prince – water, food, and medical supplies are on the ground and being distributed. Relief also has been directed to Cap-Haitien as refugees have fled there looking for food, water and shelter.
Pallets of food, water and medical supplies are being shipped to the Dominican Republic and delivered by the truckload through the border into Haiti, with one team crossing today with rice, water and bags of cement. The port at Cap-Haitien also is being used to get relief into the country as fast as possible. The capital city’s main port reopened today and the agency will begin utilizing it, increasing its emergency response time.
Response to the need for aid has been widespread and straight from the hearts of those aching for a battered Haiti.
“I want to thank the people of this great land,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. “As an American, I am proud to be part of all the people of the United States. We are all His children.”
Even as aid continues to pour in, Mahfood acknowledged that the need for aid continues to grow as assessments continue to arrive from teams on the ground.
Containers of tents are being delivered just as the population of homeless quake survivors increases. There are now reportedly 2 million homeless people in Haiti.
The charity is responding immediately by delivering containers of medical supplies to treat people surviving in the crowded, makeshift camps, and a number of clinics that Food For The Poor has supported through the years. There is tremendous fear of a widespread disease outbreak such as diarrhea linked with cholera and typhoid.
Food For The Poor/Haiti office was able to fully reopen on Monday, and 20,000 hot meals a day are being prepared and served out of the main feeding center there in Port-au-Prince. Getting food distributed to the agency’s orphanages and elderly home is a priority as well.
Food For The Poor is accepting monetary donations and cases of canned meats, canned fish (tuna, sardines), cases of condensed and evaporated milk, cases of pre-mixed baby formula, and cases of peanut butter in plastic containers. The warehouse will be open Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The goods are part of Food For The Poor’s immediate goal to provide $20 million in relief to Haiti’s earthquake victims.
For information and to make a donation, visit www.foodforthepoor.org/haitiquake.
Food For The Poor, the largest international relief and development organization in the United States, does much more than feed millions of hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian agency provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 96 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information please visit, www.foodforthepoor.org.