Food For The Poor Prepares for 2021 Hurricane Season
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (May 21, 2021) With an above-average hurricane season forecast, Food For The Poor is securing critical relief supplies to help vulnerable families should a storm strike in the Caribbean and Latin American countries helped by the charity.
On Monday at 10:30 a.m., the charity will host a virtual hurricane briefing with media from its new broadcast studio. FFTP President/CEO Ed Raine and Jisabelle Garcia-Pedroso, Senior Programs Manager for Operations, will talk about those preparations and how the charity continues to respond to the devastating back-to-back hurricanes which slammed Central America in November.
“Families in the countries we serve continue to deal with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and the impacts from a storm on top of that could be crippling,” Raine said. “Understandably they are on edge as a new hurricane season begins.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued its hurricane forecast on Thursday, calling for an above average season with 13 to 20 named storms. Of those storms, six to 10 will be hurricanes and three to five will be major hurricanes. That comes on the heels of the most active Atlantic hurricane reason on record in 2020.
Just six months ago, Hurricanes Eta and Iota destroyed tens of thousands of homes, wiped out roads and bridges and flooded crop lands in fragile countries already vulnerable and dealing with the ongoing pandemic.
FFTP responded immediately and shipped 155 tractor-trailer loads of disaster relief items that included nonperishable food, two-burner liquid petroleum gas (propane) stoves and supplies.
Thanks to FFTP’s generous donors, the charity was able to purchase critically needed food and hygiene items in the Central American countries hardest hit by Eta and Iota. Now, the charity and its donors are helping farmers replant crops through several projects that will increase food supply to areas hardest hit.
“We cannot forget Honduras, Nicaragua and other areas impacted by these storms are still in a state of recovery,” Raine said. “Thanks to our partners and donors and with God’s blessings, we are ready to provide aid to those who need it most. And we’re committed to responding faster by positioning supplies in the countries.”
The hurricane relief supplies loaded in the charity’s Coconut Creek warehouse include tarps, disaster blankets and hygiene kits.
In April, the charity began sending disaster relief kits to the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. Some of the charity’s key U.S. partners provided the items in the kits.
Each country received a kit containing 24 boxes of P&G water purification packets from Water Mission, 14 cases of Liquid I.V. Hydration Multiplier, an oral rehydration solution, 540 Disaster Health Kits with hygiene items from MAP International, 280 children’s activity kits from Midwest Mission Distribution Center, 320 disaster blankets, 180 solar lanterns and 100 tarps.
By pre-positioning critical relief supplies, the charity’s in-country partners can respond immediately if a hurricane or other disaster strikes, such as the recent eruption of volcano La Soufrière on the island of St. Vincent.
Two shipments of disaster supplies were kept in the charity’s Coconut Creek warehouse. They will be used to replenish supplies if a country experiences a disaster and partners have to distribute the relief items before the end of the year.
FFTP is accepting donations of hurricane supplies during a special sales tax-free holiday in Florida that runs from Friday, May 28 to Sunday, June 6. During that period, sales taxes will be exempted on items such as flashlights, batteries, portable radios, tarps, new gasoline or diesel fuel containers, new generators and coolers.
Residents can bring those items to the Food For The Poor warehouse, 6401 Lyons Road, Coconut Creek, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. Donors also can purchase relief supplies via the charity’s Amazon list: www.foodforthepoor.org/emergencysupplies.
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
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6054
[email protected]
