Food For The Poor Focused on Aid, Efficiency
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (April 19, 2010) – The nation’s largest international relief and development agency continued to provide more than $1 billion in aid to the poor in the Caribbean and Latin America in 2009.
“We are grateful to our donors for their generosity and for understanding that the needs of the poor do not disappear simply because we are enduring our own struggles in the United States,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. “We continue to hear the cries of the poor, and we are prepared to work as hard as necessary to meet their needs.”
According to Food For The Poor’s 2009 Annual Report:
- Food For The Poor held its operating expenses under 4 percent — ensuring that more than 96 percent of donations goes directly to programs that help the poor.
- More than 12 million pounds of rice, 6 million pounds of beans, 1.5 million pounds of canned foods, and almost 8 million pounds of other life-sustaining foods were delivered to the hungry.
- The charity built 6,371 housing units – bringing the total to more than 61,000 since 1982.
- Food For The Poor sent 601 trailers of medicines and medical supplies and 382 trailers of educational supplies.
- Food For The Poor continued to provide clean water, build schools and clinics, and support nursing homes and orphanages.
- The charity gave hope to thousands through fishing villages and tilapia ponds, by planting fruit trees, and by providing animal husbandry and agricultural programs. Haiti now has 30 fishing villages along its coast, and Jamaica has 17.
In November, Food For The Poor reached another milestone when the nation’s foremost independent charity evaluator, Charity Navigator, announced that it had earned a four-star rating for nine consecutive years – showing that the charity operates “in the most fiscally responsible way possible.”
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, visit www.foodforthepoor.org
Contact:
Kathy Skipper
Marketing and Public Relations Manager
954.427.2222, ext. 6614
[email protected]
