Food For The Poor Partners with U.S. Southern Command
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Oct. 19, 2009) – Food For The Poor and United States Southern Command signed an agreement on Thursday to work together to pursue their common objectives in humanitarian response and international development. Representatives of both groups signed a Memorandum of Understanding that allows them to coordinate mutually beneficial activities.
U.S. Southern Command is responsible for military operations within Latin America and the Caribbean. Representatives from the command attending the signing ceremony at Food For The Poor headquarters were Mr. Todd Harvey, Partnering Director; Commander Norb Nobrega, Chief NGO/PVO; and Lt. Col. David Biggs, Public Private Cooperation.
“Christ calls us to help those who are less fortunate. The people we serve are the ones who will benefit greatly from this partnership,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO for Food For The Poor, an inter-denominational Christian relief organization. “We are pleased that the people of the U.S. Southern Command recognize that feeding people, addressing their health issues and improving their access to education ultimately will result in better stability in the countries in which we both work.”
An example of this kind of cooperation occurred in April, when the very young and the elderly served by Food For The Poor in Haiti received medical treatment as part of the hospital ship USNS Comfort’s deployment in Haiti, and six other countries during a four-month humanitarian mission in the Caribbean and Latin America.
Currently, Food For The Poor and U.S. Southern Command are working together to deliver a much-needed container of medical equipment to a hospital in Guyana.
Food For The Poor, the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. We provide 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.
Contact:
Kathy Skipper
Manager, Marketing and Public Relations
954-427-2222, ext. 6614