Food For The Poor Thanks Office Depot Foundation
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (July 27, 2017) Thanks to the generosity of the Office Depot Foundation, Food For The Poor will be able to provide 4,000 sackpacks for children in its Angels Of Hope program in six countries.
The drawstring-style sackpacks come in seven different vibrant colors and are filled with essential school supplies and important tools children need to help them succeed in school.
“Imagine the kids who show up at these orphanages with nothing but the clothes on their back, with nothing to call their own. Some of them have never been to school,” said Rebecca McConnell, International Field Manager for the charity’s Angels Of Hope program, speaking Thursday at the sackpack distribution event in Fort Lauderdale.
“But when you hand them a beautiful sackpack with school supplies they are able to call their own, they get so excited to start their education,” McConnell said.
Through the Angels Of Hope program, caring donors of Food For The Poor have sponsored more than 6,800 children in 170 homes throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, where the children receive food, clothing, shelter, education and lots of love.
This is the sixth year that Food For The Poor has received sackpacks from the Office Depot Foundation. Over the years, 30,000 sackpacks have been generously donated by the foundation and distributed at the beginning of the new school year to the schools and Angels Of Hope homes. This year, the sackpacks will go to children in Angels Of Hope homes in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica and Trinidad.
Office Depot Foundation’s National Backpack Program is in its 17th year and has made a difference to more than 4 million children.
“It is our mission to make sure that every child has the right tools to achieve success in school,” said Office Depot Foundation President Mary Wong. “School is challenging enough on its own, and when you’re unable to come prepared with the basic essentials for learning, it’s nearly impossible. We want to give every kid a fair chance.”
Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor primarily in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance. Over the last 10 years, fundraising and other administrative costs averaged less than 5% of our expenses; more than 95% of all donations went directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.
Michael Turnbell
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6054
[email protected]