Hurricane Preparedness Week: FFTP Prepositions Critical Relief Supplies Ahead of Hurricane Season
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (April 28, 2025) – When Hurricane Beryl hit Jamaica as a Category 4 storm last July – bringing a wave of deadly destruction barely a month into hurricane season – Food For The Poor (FFTP) and its partners were ready. Weeks before the season began, FFTP had hundreds of disaster preparedness kits staged in Jamaica and the Windward Islands, enabling the charity to launch a massive response even before the storm landed.
Immediately after the storm, the charity delivered 400 packages of food, hygiene kits, tarps, water boots, and blankets to affected families in the six hardest-hit parishes in Jamaica, and an additional 140 kits arrived two days later.
“Early preparations can make a tremendous difference in our ability to quickly respond – our partners are on the ground distributing aid on day one after the storm, not 30 days later, which is essential,” FFTP President/CEO Ed Raine said. “We need to provide immediate support when communities need it most, and that’s why we believe National Hurricane Preparedness Week is so important.”
Acknowledged this year from May 4 to May 10, National Hurricane Preparedness Week is the time to prepare for potential storm activity while the sky is blue, and the winds are calm. The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, from June 1 to Nov. 30, is forecast to be above-normal, with 17 named storms, nine of which could strengthen to hurricanes and four that could become major hurricanes – Category 3 or stronger.
Preparations are underway at FFTP, with the charity pre-positioning critical relief supplies in Latin America and the Caribbean, so its partners can quickly respond after a storm or other disaster.
As in previous years, the charity is distributing disaster preparedness kits to Honduras, El Salvador, Haiti, Jamaica, Grenada, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala. Each kit will support 250 families per location, with Haiti receiving two kits to support 500 families. Working in partnership with Catholic Charities, FFTP also will stage one pre-positioned kit in Raleigh, N.C., and three in our Coconut Creek, Fla., warehouse, with flexibility to respond to emerging disaster needs.
Each kit includes:
- • 250 tarps
- • 250 disaster blankets
- • 280 children’s activity kits from Midwest Mission Distribution Center
- • 540 disaster hygiene kits with items from MAP International
- • 250 women’s care kits
- • 7,000 packets of Liquid I.V. Hydration Multiplier, an oral rehydration solution
- • 250 hand-crank emergency radio flashlights, and 250 diaper packs.
FFTP also provides heavy-duty bags that in-country partners use to package individual relief kits for each family.
As part of its disaster response plans, FFTP will also maintain two international air freight-ready disaster response kits in the charity’s Coconut Creek warehouse. Each kit contains 200 tarps, 96 disaster blankets, 3,240 cans of Vienna sausages, 540 disaster hygiene kits, and 60 two-burner propane stoves. In extreme cases, the kits can be sent within days to hard-to-reach areas or in countries where we help that do not have a supply of pre-positioned relief kits.
In addition, FFTP will have 480 cleaning kits, consisting of buckets, and cleaning supplies, stocked at its warehouse, ready for distribution in the wake of extreme flooding after a major storm.
New this year, the charity partnered with the Procter & Gamble (P&G) Children’s Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) Program to distribute water purification kits to families in need. The P&G CSDW Program was launched in 2004 to help address the lack of clean drinking water globally. A 4-gram packet of P&G Purifier of Water transforms 10 liters of contaminated water into clean drinking water in 30 minutes, using simple tools like a bucket, a spoon, and cheesecloth.
In partnership with the P&G CSDW Program, FFTP began a pilot project that will distribute 240,000 water purification packets to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. In the initial phase of the project, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Haiti will each receive 250 water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) kits individually containing 240 water purification packets, two buckets, a spoon, cheesecloth, and clips. An additional 214,000 water purification packets will be included in disaster preparedness kits for distribution in 2025 and 2026 to countries not part of the WASH kit pilot project.
“This is an exciting new development in our overall hurricane preparedness effort and in helping fulfill our mission to give vulnerable children and families access to safe water,” Raine said. “It’s a powerful addition to our pre-positioning program.”
In addition to providing emergency aid to countries after a disaster strikes, FFTP turned its attention to helping countries prepare for disasters well in advance with training and education.
The charity partnered with World Vision Dominican Republic and the Ministry of Health to launch Fortalece, a disaster risk reduction project in the Dominican Republic to help communities build long-term resilience and risk reduction in the wake of Hurricane Fiona, which struck the nation in 2022. The project is concluding this month with a series of special events, including the First National Seminar on the Use of Technology in Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation, the inauguration of the Multi-Threat Early Warning System, and a graduation ceremony for a Certification Course in Risk Management and Climate Change.
“We are very proud to have been a partner in this project,” Raine said. “Being prepared can mean the difference between life and death. With properly trained teams on the ground, we can respond quickly and correctly in emergencies, whether it’s a hurricane, a fire, earthquake, or flood.”
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.
Ernestine Williams
Communications
305-321-7342
[email protected]
