FFTP, Church Partners Help Families Recover From Hurricane Ian
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (September 30, 2022) Food For The Poor is working with trusted church partners to provide disaster relief to vulnerable families suffering from Hurricane Ian in Southwest Florida. And beginning today, the charity is accepting donations for cleaning kits.
On Monday, FFTP will send a truck of critically needed supplies to the Florida Catholic Conference, which will oversee distribution from its local partner, Catholic Diocese of Venice in Bonita Springs, to the people hardest hit by the storm.
“These items will be distributed immediately,” said Gabe Tischler, Emergency Management Specialist of the Florida Catholic Conference. “Our Centro Juan Diego office location in Bonita Springs is a hub for the migrant farm workers in the area. We expect these supplies will be distributed in less than two days, probably more like two hours. The needs are so great.”
Items that will be sent include: vinyl tarps, children’s activity kits, canned beans, generators and supplies for the generators, cleaning wipes, bags, Liquid I.V. oral rehydration solutions, disaster blankets and women’s care kits.
FFTP also is working with the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church to send hygiene kits, baby diapers and tarps.
To further assist the Methodist Church, FFTP is collecting requested relief items in specific sizes so they can be easily packaged in 5-gallon buckets.
Those items include: 32-64 oz. bottle liquid laundry detergent; 16-40 oz. bottle liquid concentrate household cleaner; 16-34 oz. bottle dish soap; 4-8 oz. pump spray air freshener; 6-14 oz. pump spray insect repellent; scrub brush, reusable cleaning wipes, scouring pads, clothespins, clothesline, heavy-duty trash bags, N95 particulate respirator dust masks, kitchen gloves and work gloves.
Donors can purchase items via the charity’s AmazonSmile list: www.foodforthepoor.org/ianrelief.
These donated goods also can be delivered to FFTP’s Coconut Creek warehouse, 6401 Lyons Road, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays.
FFTP volunteers will package those relief items in 5-gallon buckets and send them to the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church.
While FFTP’s mission primarily is to serve internationally, the charity has responded in the past to catastrophic disasters in the United States.
In 2018, FFTP responded after Hurricane Michael struck the Florida Panhandle. The charity received two tractor-trailer loads of relief items from Matthew 25: Ministries and one tractor-trailer load of bleach from Gleaning For The World that was distributed to families in need by Catholic Charities of Northwest Florida.
“Working with the Florida Catholic Conference and the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church to respond to Hurricane Ian will help us better fulfill our mission to serve and comfort those who are in desperate need in times of disaster,” FFTP President/CEO Ed Raine said.
“Although the primary focus of our work remains in developing countries where we serve, where there are no safety nets, this will allow us to help our brothers and sisters in Southwest Florida who are suffering,” Raine added.
Hurricane Ian made landfall Wednesday near Fort Myers, Fla., as a Category 4 storm with winds of 150 mph. The storm flooded homes on both of the state’s coasts and knocked out electricity to more than 2 million Florida homes and businesses. At least 21 people were reported dead in counties across the state, a number that’s expected to rise, according to news reports.
FFTP’s headquarters in Coconut Creek was not impacted by the storm.
Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry children and families living in poverty primarily in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicine, educational materials, homes, support for vulnerable children, care for the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.
Michael Turnbell
Communications Associate
954-471-0928 – mobile
[email protected]