Food For The Poor Distributes Aid in the Bahamas
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Sept. 20, 2019) Food For The Poor continues to respond to an urgent situation in the Bahamas with thousands struggling to rebuild their lives after Hurricane Dorian ravaged the commonwealth’s northwest islands nearly three weeks ago.
Today, Food For The Poor loaded two 40-foot containers with water and food at its Coconut Creek warehouse and shipped them to Freeport, in the Bahamas. The goods will be distributed by the Episcopal Church, one of the charity’s trusted partners.
This week, a Food For The Poor team traveled to the Bahamas to verify how aid is getting to desperate families left with nothing.
“It’s heartbreaking to see people lining up for food and water and basic supplies,” said Cesar Guevara, International Operations Manager in Food For The Poor’s Gifts In Kind Department.
On Wednesday, volunteers with partner Archdiocese of Nassau distributed relief items shipped by the charity to Freeport.
“Many people in the Bahamas lost everything and they don’t have a safety net,” said Food For The Poor Executive Vice President Ed Raine.
“We’re grateful to our donors and the South Florida community for providing an abundance of food and everyday necessities and to our partners for assuring that relief is getting to those who are suffering,” Raine said. “Beyond these initial relief efforts, we know the people of the Bahamas are going to need long-term help and that their needs are great.”
Hurricane Dorian’s death toll in the Bahamas stands at 51 and 1,300 people remain unaccounted for.
In addition to the two 40-foot containers loaded and shipped today, the charity has sent 10 other containers and eight other pallets of critically needed disaster supplies to the Bahamas.
Items sent include generators, two-burner stoves, blankets and tarps, rice casserole meals, bags of rice and a general assortment of food, juices, water, chainsaws, diapers, hygiene kits and 5-gallon buckets.
For more than two weeks, South Florida residents, businesses, churches and community organizations have dropped off a steady stream of canned meats, canned fish and canned milk, diapers and hygiene items at the charity’s Coconut Creek warehouse. Donations have been so plentiful that teams of Food For The Poor employees have been called on to sort the goods.
Here is a video of Food For The Poor Executive Vice President Ed Raine talking about how the charity is responding in the Bahamas: https://youtu.be/jgIkjjGr3mY
Please go to www.FoodForThePoor.org/bahamas to make a donation.
You also may donate supplies via our Amazon Wish List, and they will be distributed to families in the Bahamas: 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 the hungry poor 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 orphaned or abandoned 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]