Florida Marlins Step Up To The Plate For Food For The Poor

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Feb. 11, 2010) – Spring training is just a few weeks away, and some of the Florida Marlins are already stepping up to the plate for Haiti’s earthquake victims. The baseball team’s “Caravan of Earth” picked up food, water and medical supplies at a BJ’s Wholesale Club and personally delivered them to Food For The Poor’s headquarters in Coconut Creek. The largest international charity in the United States will distribute the donations to Haiti’s earthquake victims.

A renowned player, and a major part of the team’s two World Series championships, Jeff Conine, also known as “Mr. Marlin,” on Tuesday helped load a moving truck and the team’s motor coach at the wholesale club’s Pembroke Pines store. Four Marlins players also donated their time and helped load the relief items: Brian Sanches (#44), Sean West (#45), Chris Leroux (#52) and Rick VandenHurk (#56).

“When everybody leaves Haiti, it is organizations like Food For The Poor that will remain working there,” said Conine. “Even as the media attention fades, people still need help, and we know they’ll need help for a very long time. We’re glad to be able to do this.”

BJ’s shoppers have donated more than 40,000 pounds of goods. The wholesale club allowed all of their Broward County stores to collect relief items for Food For The Poor since the earthquake devastated the country.

All four team players insisted on helping Food For The Poor employees unload the donated items collected on that day from the Pembroke Pines store, including dozens of boxes containing emergency relief items, crutches, diapers and canned goods.

“We appreciate the generosity of this team, and the care the players took to deliver donation items,” said Food For The Poor President/CEO Robin Mahfood. “All of these items will provide much-needed relief while we remain focused on reconstruction in Haiti. The people there still need so much, and we are grateful for the profuse outpouring from the community, and the help from the Florida Marlins.”

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.

Contact:
Aimee Vignola
Public Relations
(954) 427-2222, ext. 6079