From Empty to Plenty: FFTP Celebrates Partnership with World Food Program USA, Launches World Food Day Campaign to Support School Meals in El Salvador
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Oct. 16, 2024) – Today, Food For The Poor (FFTP) is acknowledging World Food Day with the launch of a digital fundraising campaign aimed at addressing chronic malnutrition among children in El Salvador. The campaign is supporting a collaborative effort between FFTP and World Food Program USA for the United Nations World Food Programme’s work to support school meals in El Salvador.
“We are so excited about this project in El Salvador,” said FFTP President/CEO Ed Raine. “We really respect World Food Program USA and how they have consistently presented themselves on the caring side of developing a partnership, and that’s not something that we take for granted.”
Celebrated each year on Oct. 16, World Food Day is intended to raise awareness about global hunger and the importance of food security. FFTP’s theme this year is “From Empty to Plenty: Food is a Human Right.”
On the eve of World Food Day, Barron Segar, President and CEO of World Food Program USA, Riaz Lodhi, Representative and Country Director of the U.N. World Food Programme in El Salvador, and their team visited the FFTP headquarters in Coconut Creek, Fla., to celebrate their collaboration.
“A school meal not only enables children to attend school but also uplifts families and boosts the local economy,” Segar said. “Schools may have teachers and resources, but without a meal, children are more likely to work or marry early. A school meal provides nourishment, safety, and lasting impact. That’s why we’re here.”
During the celebration, Raine, Segar and Lodhi, along with executive staff and team members, toasted with Biofortik, an iron-fortified supplement central to FFTP’s campaign. Biofortik, made in El Salvador from local corn and sorghum, is a nutritional supplement containing amino chelated iron that effectively addresses iron deficiency anemia. It is derived from high-quality protein, corn and sorghum, vitamin-enriched, and free of preservatives to provide essential micronutrients.
FFTP’s campaign will benefit the School Feeding and Health Program, known as PASE, which is the acronym for the Spanish translation of the program’s name (Programa de Alimentación y Salud Escolar). PASE serves more than 1 million students in El Salvador, aiming to boost enrollment and educational outcomes. The campaign will target the department of Sonsonate, and every $1 donated will provide $4 worth of Biofortik to a child.
With a $2 million investment from FFTP and its generous donors, the project will deliver Biofortik to approximately 60,000 children. Including the children already receiving the supplement, the gift will help combat anemia and chronic childhood malnutrition among more than 400,000 students over the next 18 months. The initiative will also benefit 500 small-scale sorghum and corn farmers in El Salvador, strengthening local agriculture and food security.
“We know that one in ten children in El Salvador suffers from chronic malnutrition,” Segar said. “And we’re going to change that between the World Food Program USA and Food For The Poor with El Salvador (with this collaboration) as our first project.”
The partnership between FFTP and World Food Program USA is unique in that it supports both childhood nutrition and local production, with the goal of promoting healthy eating habits among schoolchildren while boosting the local economy.
It begins at the farm, empowering small-scale grain producers to grow the raw materials needed for Biofortik and continues with investing in improvements at a local Biofortik plant, funding upgrades to infrastructure, machinery, safety protocols, personnel training, and production processes.
“With the help of Food For The Poor, we’re making long-term investments that will help nearly 500,000 children annually for decades,” Lodhi said. “This one-time investment goes a long way, and this is the kind of opportunity that the World Food Programme is looking for to make sure that we are changing lives. Our thinking is that we should work ourselves out of business – help people in such a way that they don’t need our help anymore.”
To learn more and support the campaign, click the following link: https://foodforthepoor.donorsupport.co/page/2024wfd
About Food For The Poor
Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry children and families living in poverty primarily in 15 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, water, medicine, educational materials, homes, support for vulnerable children, care for the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance. For more information, please visit foodforthepoor.org.
About World Food Program USA
World Food Program USA, a 501(c)(3) organization based in Washington, D.C., proudly supports the mission of the United Nations World Food Programme by mobilizing American policymakers, businesses, and individuals to advance the global movement to end hunger. Our leadership and support help to bolster an enduring American legacy of feeding families in need around the world. To learn more about World Food Program USA’s mission, please visit wfpusa.org/mission-history.
Ernestine Williams
Communications
305-321-7342
[email protected]