Food For The Poor

Philanthropists unite to celebrate one of Palm Beach’s finest treasures, Robert G. Gordon

2012-01-31T08:40:00.000-08:00

Palm Beach philanthropists Arlette Gordon (Honorary Chairwoman) and Elizabeth Bowden (Honorary Chairwoman) joined Paul Marino (Event Chairman) on stage at Food For The Poor’s ninth-annual Fine Wines & Hidden Treasures gala Sunday night to honor Arlette’s late husband, Robert G. Gordon, one of Palm Beach’s finest treasures. Proceeds from the Jan. 29 gala at The Breakers Palm Beach will build a critically needed school for over 100 disadvantaged children in and around Gordon’s Cove in Bluefields, Jamaica.

“Tonight honors my darling husband,” said Arlette. “One of Bob’s greatest pleasures was his involvement as Chairperson for the past several Food For The Poor Palm Beach Galas. During his lifetime, funds were raised to build Gordon’s Cove, a sustainable fishing village and community.”

Food For The Poor’s gala began with a superb wine tasting reception with selected wines to enhance the five-course menu compliments of Dreyfus, Ashby & Co., and Republic National Distributing Company. Throughout the reception, unique wine selections, jewelry and exotic escapes to Hong Kong and Montego Bay, Jamaica, were among the various silent and live auction prizes.

To read more, click here.

Emilio Bonifacio will celebrate Youth Day in the D.R.

2012-01-30T07:42:00.000-08:00

Miami Marlins baseball star Emilio Bonifacio will travel to Puerto Plata on Jan. 31 to distribute baseball equipment and uniforms with Food For The Poor, the largest international relief and development organization in the United States. His visit will coincide with National Youth Day in the Dominican Republic.

This will be the third time that hometown hero Bonifacio has reached out through Food For The Poor to children in the D.R. who have dreams of following his path. In December, he surprised orphans at the Hogar Escuela Santo Domingo Savio with an early Christmas gift when he enjoyed a meal with them and then gave each of them T-shirts with the team’s new logo. In 2010, he joined Food For The Poor in distributing more than 2,000 mitts, bats, balls, helmets, and uniforms to orphans.

“It was an honor to be there at the orphanage and spend time with the kids. I take pride in helping them any which way I can,” Bonifacio said of his recent December trip. “Growing up close to that orphanage, I’m proud to have the opportunity to give back to the community I call home.”

To read more, click here.

Palm Beach County students organize a benefit concert for Nicaragua

2012-01-26T08:07:00.000-08:00

Embarking on a new way to involve South Florida’s youth in philanthropy, Atlantic Community High School junior Samantha Kerker collaborated with students and faculty members at six Palm Beach County high schools to present a benefit concert Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012, at Mizner Park Amphitheater, in Boca Raton. Proceeds from this evening of music will build a Food For The Poor school in Chinandega, Nicaragua.

“By all of the students coming together in these Students For The Poor chapters, it has given us the strength and power to really impact a plethora of students lives,” said Samantha. “This school in Nicaragua will benefit hundreds of students, and will allow them to have a proper education. With more students getting a proper education, the generations will become stronger and wiser, and will eventually overcome their developing country status.”

To read more, click here.

Grammy award-winning reggae star, Shaggy, shines light on Haiti’s housing needs

2012-01-20T12:53:00.000-08:00

The 2012 Grammy nominee and award-winning reggae artist, Shaggy, has partnered with the South Florida based-nonprofit Food For The Poor to help build homes in Haiti. Shaggy is scheduled to perform at Food For The Poor’s annual Building Hope Gala on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012 at The Polo Club of Boca Raton.

Attendees will be invited to create a legacy by pledging to build critically needed houses during the charity’s live house-rally. For additional information regarding the Building Hope Gala, sponsorship levels, and tickets, available at $225 per person, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org/boca.

Shaggy won a Grammy for his album “Boombastic,” and was nominated for “It Wasn’t Me,” “Clothes Drop,” “Intoxication,” and “Hotshot.” Shaggy won Billboard’s Male Artist of the Year and Male Album Artist of the Year in 2001 and was nominated at the 2002 American Music Awards as the Favorite Male Pop/Rock Artist, Rap/Hip-Hop Artist and International Artist of the year. Shaggy has sold over 20 million albums to date and has had seven number one albums. Shaggy has also had eight number one hit singles with “Boombastic,“ “In the Summertime,” “Angel,” “It Wasn’t Me,” “Church Heathen,” “Bonafide Girl,” “Feel the Rush,” and “Sugarcane.” Currently, Shaggy is a 2012 Grammy nominee for his new album “Summer in Kingston.”

To read more, click here.

School campaign celebrates Jamaica’s golden anniversary

2012-01-20T08:35:00.000-08:00

Jamaica, the Caribbean's third-largest island, will be celebrating 50 years of independence from British rule on Aug.6, 2012. To mark this golden anniversary, Food For The Poor is launching the “Jamaica 50 Campaign” to build 50 schools in 50 months. The initiative will work like this:

- In August of 2012, the first school will open, and then a new school will open each month for the next 50 months.
-Food For The Poor will replace a school that has been targeted by a community that’s been deemed as an unfit space for children to learn.

Music is often what comes to mind when speaking of Jamaica, but education has always been a seed deeply planted into the minds of the Jamaican people. The Caribbean nation has experienced its share of economic hardship – many parents cannot afford to pay school fees, buy books, school supplies or uniforms necessary to send their children to basic school. Many of the nation’s school buildings are dilapidated or in desperate need of repair.

To read more, click here.

A housing recipient's gratitude

2012-01-19T10:51:00.000-08:00

Until Food For The Poor donors intervened, Barbara Austin of Georgetown, Guyana, lived in what amounted to a lean-to – none of her four walls were complete, and a ripped tarp served as her roof. Everything was wet from rain and standing water.

“For the past four years my mind has been troubled; I had to send all my children away from me to seek shelter with relatives and friends because I had [nowhere] to put them,” she said.

In tears, Austin said she does not have the words to adequately say thank you to those responsible for the construction of her new home, a sturdy, elevated house with a real roof. She said it is incredibly heartening that what her family could not have done for her strangers could.

“Now I am at peace all my children are coming home to me,” she said. “It is not easy being apart from my children. Many nights I cried since I could not pray with them and tuck them into bed.”

It costs Food For The Poor just $3,200 to build a home for a homeless family. But now through Feb. 29, gifts we receive to our “Welcome to My Home” housing campaign are being matched dollar-for-dollar courtesy of generous supporters who believe in our mission. Thanks to the match, every gift of $3,200 you give to build a home will actually build TWO houses! Learn more.

Thousands of meals are heading to Haiti, thanks to Lynn University

2012-01-18T06:40:00.000-08:00

More than 200 students, staff and volunteers packed Green Hall on the campus of Lynn University on the second anniversary of the Haiti earthquake. They were not there to mourn, but to participate in a food packing event to help feed families still recovering from the 2010 natural disaster.

The precious cargo – white rice, lentils, dried carrot, onion, tomato, celery, cabbage, bell pepper and a dash of Himalayan sea salt – was vacuum-sealed on the Boca Raton campus and packed into 120 boxes. Each box contains 48 bags of the dried ingredients, and each bag equals six meals or 288 meals per box, a total of 34,560 meals. All of the boxes were then signed with loving words of encouragement, loaded onto a truck and delivered to Food For The Poor’s warehouse in Coconut Creek.

To read more, click here.

Celebrating hope out of tragedy:The two-year anniversary of the Haiti earthquake

2012-01-12T10:23:00.000-08:00

Forty-two families in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, are waking up in new homes, in a new community, and with new hope this morning. The Journey of Hope Memorial Village, built by Food For The Poor to celebrate the lives, love and sacrifice of the Lynn University students and faculty, is being dedicated on the two-year anniversary of one of the most devastating earthquakes in the Caribbean nation’s history.

The group of 12 college students and two faculty advisors were on a Journey of Hope mission trip with Food For The Poor when at 4:53 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck near Port-au-Prince. More than 230,000 lives were lost that day, including the lives of students Stephanie Crispinelli, Britney Gengel, Christine Gianacaci, Courtney Hayes, and Professors Patrick Hartwick and Richard Bruno.

“There are no words to express the depth of despair we felt for the students, their advisors, and for the people of Haiti when the earthquake happened,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. “These young people wanted to make a difference and the love of service was in their hearts when they went to Haiti. It was vital that we did something in harmony with that purpose – something that would make their legacy eternal.”

To read more, click here.

Boca committee members committed to Building Hope in Haiti

2012-01-11T07:27:00.000-08:00

One way South Floridians can keep Haiti on the radar and continue to help the rebuilding progress is to attend Food For The Poor’s annual Building Hope Gala on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012 at The Polo Club of Boca Raton.

In November, seven committee members from the Boca Raton/Lighthouse Point communities traveled to Haiti with Food For The Poor. While in-country, the committee members decided this year’s Building Hope Gala goal would be to raise enough money to construct 100 housing units, a community center, and to initiate an animal husbandry project to include 20 cows in Olivier, Deuxieme Plaine, Haiti.

“It was a very sad day, but a great experience – a life adjusting experience,” said Rene Mahfood, the event’s Honorary Chairperson after her first day in Haiti. “What we saw today puts everything in perspective. You think about how expensive life is back home and all the things you can’t afford. Then you realize that all those material things don’t matter. None of it matters. All that matters is having a roof over your head, being able to clothe your children and having food to eat.”

To read more, click here.

American girl, welcomed home in Haiti, plans to build more homes

2012-01-10T11:39:00.000-08:00

In November, 12-year-old Rachel Wheeler and NBC’s Nightly News Chief Medical Editor, Dr. Nancy Snyderman, were welcomed to “Rachel’s Village” in the coastal village of Kay Piti in Leogane, Haiti. Residents of the village greeted Rachel like their favorite daughter – clapping and singing songs of praise as the sound of musical instruments filled the air.

The purpose of the trip with the nonprofit Food For The Poor was two-fold – to solidify plans for the expansion of Rachel’s village, and to meet the students who will benefit from the community’s new school.

“I feel that housing and education projects are important because those are the main elements of being successful,” said Rachel Wheeler, who was named one of America’s “Top 11 Kids Who Made A Difference In 2011” by The Huffington Post in December 2011. “Haiti needs help – a lot of help. I am trying to do that. I love going to my village – but the part I don’t love is seeing tent houses on the side of the road with starving children crying as they eat mud cookies that their mother bakes them to ease their hunger pain. That is the sad part of Haiti – the part I am trying to change.”

To read more, click here.

Make your tax-deductible donation today and it will be doubled!

2011-12-28T07:36:00.000-08:00

First there was Lester. He weighed only 9 pounds at 13 months of age. He was refused admittance at a hospital where his family was told, "he's going to die." But Food For The Poor donors responded with incredible generosity, and Lester is a happy little boy today.

Then there was Zuleyca. At 7 months old, she weighed just 6 pounds and looked like an old woman with wrinkles and sagging skin caused by malnutrition. Once again, Food For The Poor donors responded and saved her life.

Just recently, Fredy Panjoj was brought into our lives. He is 7 years old but weighs just 24 pounds. According to his doctors, he is in the final stages of malnutrition and is half the weight of a healthy boy his age.

Little Fredy and thousands of children like him are in critical need of your help. Thanks to a FFP supporter who has pledged to match donations, all gifts made before midnight, Dec. 31, will be doubled, up to $500,000. In this season of joy and goodwill, of loving and sharing, please come to the rescue of these children knowing you will be bringing the gift of life to twice as many.

To make your year-end gift, please visit www.foodforthepoor.org/fredy.

Miami Marlins player Bonifacio brightens boys’ home

2011-12-27T12:31:00.000-08:00

Orphans at the Hogar Escuela Santo Domingo Savio in the Dominican Republic received an early Christmas gift when Miami Marlins player Emilio Bonifacio surprised them on Dec. 14. The 120 boys at the orphanage sponsored by Food For The Poor enjoyed a meal with the baseball star and hometown hero, who later gave each of them T-shirts with the team’s new logo.

“It was an honor to be there at the orphanage and spend time with the kids. I take pride in helping them any which way I can,” Bonifacio said. “Growing up close to that orphanage, I’m proud to have the opportunity to give back to the community I call home.”

The home participates in Food For The Poor’s Angels of Hope child sponsorship program and receives donated items from the international relief and development ministry. The charity recently completed a water project for the home and renovated the kitchen.

To read more, click here.

Food For The Poor organizes prisoner releases nonviolent offenders freed in Jamaica, Guyana, Haiti and Honduras

2011-12-20T14:41:00.000-08:00

In anticipation of Christmas, Food For The Poor released prisoners who have committed nonviolent offenses in Jamaica (22), Guyana (25), Haiti (36) and Honduras (2). They were incarcerated due to their inability to pay required fines. Eighty-five prisoners have been released in these countries in time to spend Christmas with their families.

“When you visit a prison, desperate eyes peer out of the dark cells, into the light, pleading silently for help,” said Robin Mahfood, Food For The Poor’s CEO/President. “They want to feel a connection with the outside world, to be a brother in Christ, to be prayed for – and to not be forgotten.”

In developing countries, the destitute sometimes have no way to feed their families other than to steal food. The consequence often is imprisonment without first appearing before a judge, or receiving a prison sentence. Sometimes, by the time they are tried, they have spent years longer in jail than their prison sentence requires.

To read more, click here.

Wisconsin helping Haiti one child, one family at a time

2011-12-20T12:35:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Worldwide Hunger Relief, Inc. and caring volunteers, more than 250,000 meals are ready to be shipped to Haiti to feed children in Food For The Poor’s feeding programs. Hundreds of volunteers filled the Wisconsin Products Pavilion at the State Fair Park in Milwaukee, for the four-day event in October to pack 18 pallets of nutritious food.

“The packers came from all walks of life, from the very young to the elderly. We had classrooms of kids and more than 60 kids from a local Islamic high school. We even had a church group bring 80 children from an after-school program,” said Karl Ralian, Founder and President of Worldwide Hunger Relief, Inc. “Most interesting of all, we had 15 people from a wedding party who came to pack food. I was completely blown away by this heartwarming testimonial to people's goodness.”

Each participant’s $20 fee was used to purchase dehydrated foods for the meal packs, which will provide nutritious food without the fear of spoiling and will prevent waterborne illness because boiling water is needed to rehydrate the meals.

To read more, click here.

You have the power to give a family a good Christmas!

2011-12-20T07:48:00.000-08:00

Christmas! The very word conjures up images of golden turkeys, baked hams, marshmallow yams, mouth-watering pies, and tables full of decadent treats.

Yet, less than two hours away by plane in Baie d'Orange, Haiti, starvation has taken such a devastating toll that the only thriving business belongs to a man and his brother who build small wooden coffins.

"How many families have lost a child to starvation?" Food For The Poor Executive Director Angel Aloma asked a group of local women. Silence... sad eyes... hands slowly rising... one, after another, after another.

For these poor mothers, a good Christmas would be having enough rice and beans so that their children could enjoy at least one meal each day. A good Christmas would be having safe and clean drinking water so that their children don't get sick and suffer. A good Christmas would be the ability to sleep peacefully at night, without the piercing screams of hunger and the worry of what tragedy the dawn might bring.

You have the power to give families like these a good Christmas! Your caring, loving gift will let them know that God has not forgotten them. And now, thanks to a group of generous donors, any gifts we receive by Dec. 31 (up to $500,000) will be matched, dollar-for-dollar! If we are able to reach this goal, we will be able to provide 20 million meals to the poorest of the poor.

Please make your year-end gift today at www.foodforthepoor.org/goodchristmas.

WLRN raises funds to feed more than 600 children in Haiti

2011-12-14T10:24:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the generosity of Friends of WLRN and 91.3 WLRN’s radio listeners, the South Florida public radio station raised enough money to feed more than 600 children in Haiti for six months. For the second time this year, this much-needed assistance has come during a time when soaring food and fuel prices are putting a strain on nonprofits.

“Words cannot express the gratitude Food For The Poor has for the Friends of WLRN and 91.3 WLRN for helping us to provide food to feed hundreds of children in Haiti,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. “This is a tremendous blessing and many lives will be saved as a result.”

To read more, click here.

Three Atlanta attorneys blog as they bring Water-Life-Hope to Haiti

2011-12-12T11:31:00.000-08:00

Three attorneys from Atlanta-area communities traveled with the nonprofit Food For The Poor to Haiti, Dec. 5-8, to visit remote communities in desperate need of clean, safe drinking water. During their journey they posted photos and comments on their travel blog at www.waterlifehope.blogspot.com.

Travelers included Edward Buckley (Decatur), Amanda Farahany (Atlanta), and Sheryl McCalla (Avondale Estates).

“In our view, the right to clean drinking water is the most fundamental human right we have,” said Buckley. “The water wells that have already been installed in Haiti have made an extraordinary difference to the people in the communities they serve.”

To read more, click here.

Radio personalities travel to Haiti with Food For The Poor

2011-12-02T13:55:00.000-08:00

On-air personalities from across the country traveled to Haiti this fall with the Christian relief and development organization, Food For The Poor. For many of the travelers, this was their first experience witnessing this level of extreme destitution.

“The bottom line is people, humankind, should not be living in this kind of squalor,” said Big Wave Dave, afternoon host of The Fish 95.9 FM in Los Angeles, while walking through Shada, Haiti. “This is something that we as Americans cannot fathom – the worst parts of the Bronx, the worst part of Southern California and L.A. – pales in comparison.”

To read more, click here.

Help Food For The Poor select this year’s Christmas eCard

2011-12-02T10:31:00.000-08:00

Every year, Food For The Poor shares Christmas greetings with supporters by sending a holiday eCard. This year, we want your help choosing the best image!

Cast your vote for your favorite image between now and Wednesday, Dec. 14. We’ll reveal the winning picture when the Christmas eCard is sent to Food For The Poor supporters and posted on the Food For The Poor Facebook page on Thursday Dec. 22.

As always, thank you for your support. We wish you a very happy holiday season!

www.foodforthepoor.org.christmascard

WLRN Radio fundraises to feed children in Haiti

2011-11-30T12:53:00.000-08:00

Friends of WLRN is reaching out for the second time this year to help Food For The Poor. This much-needed help is coming during a time when soaring food and fuel prices are putting a strain on nonprofits. When radio listeners support WLRN through the station’s fund drive, Friends of WLRN will in turn donate a portion of the proceeds to feed hungry and malnourished children in Haiti.

Friends of WLRN has dedicated its fundraising time from 4 p.m. Nov. 30, to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 1, to help Food For The Poor. During the 27-hour campaign, for every $100 committed by listeners who call to support the station during that time, Friends of WLRN will donate $18 to feed a hungry child in Haiti for six months through Food For The Poor’s feeding programs.

To read more, click here.

Your gift to orphans will be matched dollar-for-dollar

2011-11-23T11:21:00.001-08:00

Little Ashrena shuts her eyes to block out the rest of the world. Her traumatic experiences of abuse, neglect and being locked in a dark room have manifested in this primitive defense mechanism.

Defenseless children growing up without proper care are forced to come up with ways to deal with the pain, loneliness, fear and confusion they face every day. Ashrena copes by keeping her eyes closed.

Only 2 years old, Ashrena has suffered a lifetime of abuse and neglect. Before being dropped off by her mother at one of our supported orphanages in Guyana, she had known nothing but suffering.

“She is very, very depressed and traumatized,” said the orphanage’s director.

Thanks to a group of generous benefactors who believe in Food For The Poor’s work of rescuing children in distress, you have a wonderful opportunity today to double your gift, and help even more children. Any gifts we receive for orphans (up to $500,000) by Dec. 31 will be matched, dollar-for-dollar, to care for precious little ones like Ashrena.

This means any amount you give will automatically DOUBLE and help twice as many orphans.

Please help us take advantage of this awesome opportunity to help twice as many hurting children by giving today!

Big Mama and Lake Worth church parishioners turn to Food For The Poor to deliver Thanksgiving meals

2011-11-22T08:09:00.001-08:00

As the price of Thanksgiving dinner increases this year, more people are needed to help serve the less fortunate. “Big Mama” Essie Reed, and parishioners from United Overcomer Church in Riviera Beach contacted Food For The Poor this year to ask for help to purchase turkeys for needy families.

“Big Mama’s doing great work in South Florida and what she does is important for the community,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. “She said the Broward County School Board has identified families to receive the 200 turkeys we have donated to her cause.”

Parishioners from United Overcomer Church in Riviera Beach, are gearing up to go door-to-door Thanksgiving morning to deliver hot meals to an estimated 600 to 800 people living in nearby Lake Worth. To help with the distribution, Food For The Poor donated money for 40 turkeys to the church’s feeding mission.

To read more, click here.

Feeding the hungry, one step at a time

2011-11-16T08:11:00.000-08:00

There is still time to lace up your sneakers and register to participate in Food For The Poor’s “5K Walk/Run For Hunger.” Join us this Saturday, Nov. 19, for the first “5K Walk/Run For Hunger” at Tropical Park located at 7900 Bird Road, Miami, Fla.

Pre-registration, through Friday, is at the discounted rate of $20 for adults and $15 for children ages 6-10; there is no fee for children 5 years old and under. You can also register the day of the event. Visit www.FoodForThePoor.org to get started!

Runners should arrive by 6 a.m. for registration/check-in and the run begins at 7 a.m. Awards will be given for top male and female age group finishers for the 5K run in each of the following brackets: 14 & under, 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69 and 70+.

To read more, click here.

Caribbean region battling HIV/AIDS, needs help to win the fight

2011-11-11T07:27:00.000-08:00

It’s been 30 years since the world first learned about the dreadful disease that attacks a person’s body by destroying specific blood cells that fight infections. According to the World Health Organization, since the beginning of this pandemic, more than 60 million people worldwide have been infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and nearly 30 million have died from this virus that causes AIDS or acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Many medical advances have been made, including the introduction of antiretroviral drugs like AZT in 1987 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In the mid-90s a highly active combo of medicines were introduced to treat the virus. Today, these medicines are helping those infected with HIV to live longer and to have productive lives.

To read more, click here.

Honor Society of Nursing recognizes Food For The Poor

2011-11-10T08:40:00.000-08:00

Food For The Poor was one of two organizations to receive Archon Awards at the 2011 International Awards for Nursing Excellence in Grapevine, Texas, on Monday, Oct. 31. The award is granted to those who have made health a major aspect of their work, and have created significant change on a national or international scope.

“We provide assistance, which includes medicines for orphans, the sick and the handicapped in the countries we serve,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. “In 2010, Food For The Poor shipped more than 670 tractor-trailer loads of medicines and medical supplies. Caring donors have made this possible, and we are honored to be recognized for their generosity.”

To read more, click here.

Boca committee members open their hearts to Haiti

2011-11-09T11:50:00.000-08:00

To kick-start the much anticipated 17th annual Food For The Poor Building Hope Gala, seven committee members from the Boca Raton/Lighthouse Point communities traveled to Haiti Nov. 7-9 with the South Florida-based nonprofit. The committee members traveled as ambassadors to witness first-hand the condition of the people and to learn how the nonprofit continues to improve their lives and living conditions.

“It was a very sad day, but a great experience – a life adjusting experience,” said Rene Mahfood, the event’s Honorary Chairperson after her first day in Haiti. “What we saw today puts everything in perspective. You think about how expensive life is back home and all the things you can’t afford. Then you realize that all those material things don’t matter. None of it matters. All that matters is having a roof over your head, being able to clothe your children and having food to eat.”

The gala will be Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012 at The Polo Club of Boca Raton. Attendees will be invited to create a legacy by pledging to build critically needed houses during the charity’s live house-rally. Last year’s energized crowd pledged to construct a record 60 housing units – to restore hope and to shelter the destitute in the Caribbean and Latin America. This year more than 350 caring South Florida residents are expected to attend.

To read more, click here.

Boca Grande meets goal in Pierre Payen and changes lives

2011-11-03T12:15:00.000-07:00

Boca Grande Friendship Village, a picturesque community that’s nestled between majestic mountains, dozens of fruit trees, a river, and an ocean has transformed the lives of hundreds of people in Pierre Payen, Haiti. Thanks to the caring residents of Southwest Florida’s Boca Grande community, pastel colored houses now sit in a valley that was once occupied with mud huts.

“Boca Grande has been a tremendous blessing for many families in Pierre Payen, but most importantly, they’ve restored hope and the desire to dream again into the lives of so many,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. “To help the residents of Friendship Village to become even more self-sustaining, Boca Grande completed their second phase earlier this year, which included a nine-room basic school, 22 more homes with sanitation and cisterns, two solar-powered street lamps, 150 more fruit trees and a cow farm.”

To read more, click here.

Palm Beach philanthropists to celebrate life of Robert G. Gordon at Food For The Poor’s Fine Wines & Hidden Treasures Gala

2011-11-02T07:39:00.000-07:00

Food For The Poor’s ninth annual Palm Beach Gala, Fine Wines & Hidden Treasures, will be Sunday, January 29, 2012, at The Breakers, Palm Beach. The annual event is chaired by distinguished Palm Beach philanthropists Arlette Gordon and Elizabeth Bowden (Honorary Chairwomen), and Paul Marino (Event Chairman).

The gala will honor the life of Robert G. Gordon, one of Palm Beach’s finest treasures. With a passion for both culinary achievement and charitable giving, Robert and Arlette Gordon served for five years as the gala’s Honorary Chairpersons. Together, the Gordon’s invited members of the Palm Beach community to become involved in this philanthropic cause and transform lives of poverty and suffering into ones filled with hope and thanksgiving.

“Robert and I considered it an honor to be part of Food For The Poor’s Palm Beach Gala,” said Arlette Gordon. “Robert prided himself on recognizing good company, wine, food and efficient philanthropic giving. He was impressed that more than 96 percent of all donations to Food For The Poor go to programs that directly benefit the poor.”

To read more, click here.

Saving lives with soybeans in Guatemala

2011-11-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

Two containers packed to the brim with more than 88,000 pounds of soybeans have arrived to Guatemala City, Guatemala. Loaded in the tiny town of Moorhead, Minn., back in August, these fascinating little beans grown in the United States can be used to make milk, protein-rich meat substitute dishes, and flour. Soybeans, as a food source, are being credited for saving the lives of thousands, especially children, who are suffering from chronic malnutrition in the Central American country.

“The word malnutrition evokes many images in the mind of the reader, but most would be surprised or even shocked to learn that Guatemala, not Haiti, has by far the worst situation in regards to nutrition and children in the Western Hemisphere,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor.

Food For The Poor began shipping soybeans to Guatemala four years ago after learning that soybeans and its byproducts are an excellent source of protein. The parish of San José has a group of women who cook meals for the Pastoral Social de la Parroquia San José in the town of San José Pinula. It is one of dozens of parishes benefiting from soybean product factories in the country.

To read more, click here.

Orlando residents to present findings from Haiti at annual gala

2011-10-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

Residents from the Orlando area are committed to rescuing Haitian families who call garbage-filled swamps “home.” Central Florida residents interested in Haiti’s rebuilding process are encouraged to attend Food For The Poor’s 12th annual fundraising event, A Celebration of Hope, Nov. 12, at Buena Vista Palace Hotel & Spa. Proceeds from the annual Orlando gala have built homes for more than 586 families.

“The impact of sheltering just one poor family reverberates from the heart of that family directly to the heart of God,” said Lynne Nasrallah. “I never tire of seeing a rusty tin shack being replaced by a sturdy Food For The Poor home. I have witnessed many fathers’ hands trembling with emotion and many mothers’ tears streaming from their eyes as they are given keys to their new front door. This scene is ‘a celebration of hope’ – a hope that tells the poor that God has indeed remembered His People.”

The evening will include live music, a silent auction, house rally, dancing, and a memorable dinner with friends. Bidding on silent auction prizes offers opportunities for guests to shop and donate to the cause at the same time. Prizes include exclusive art and collectibles from the Caribbean and Latin America, designer jewelry, vacations, golf and dining packages.

To learn more, click here.

Atlanta residents rally to build a village in Jamaica

2011-10-26T11:38:00.000-07:00

Philanthropic residents and sponsors unite to host the fourth annual Atlanta Food For The Poor event, Dreams Across the Sea this Saturday, at The Westin Buckhead Hotel. Proceeds from this year’s event will build a self-sustaining community in McCooks Pen, St. Catherine, Jamaica.

"It's a delight to partner with Food For The Poor in this event for Jamaica, as we bring focus to reducing poverty and creating possibilities for the poor and disadvantaged,” said committee member Garvin Stewart. “Through our obedience to the teachings of Christ their needs will be met, they will be overwhelmed with joy, and they will express their thanks and praise to God."

To read more, click here.

Food For The Poor rises to #1 ranking

2011-10-26T11:22:00.000-07:00

Food For The Poor has risen again to the number one spot as the largest international relief and development organization in the United States, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s list of the top 400 charities. The charity last received the number one international ranking in 2008.

The Christian ministry, which works to end the suffering of the poor across Latin America and the Caribbean, ranked sixth overall of the 400 charities in the United States that raise the most from private sources. Food For The Poor’s rankings can be attributed to faithful donors and the charity’s consistently high efficiency ratio. In 2010, more than 96 percent of all donations went directly to programs that helped the poor.

To read more, click here.

Four Central American countries suffer devastating effects of storm

2011-10-26T11:09:00.000-07:00

Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador are faced with the prospect of hundreds of dead and thousands homeless, after a relentless 10-day tropical depression flooded out bridges, roads and homes. Those killed include 32 in El Salvador, 29 in Guatemala, 13 in Honduras and eight in Nicaragua, according to local officials in a Tuesday report.

In El Salvador alone, the toll is extreme. Fr. David Blanchard, who has served as a missionary in El Salvador since the late 1980s, provided this report today to Food For The Poor:

To read more, click here.

Christmas gifts that renew hearts

2011-10-14T11:13:00.000-07:00

During this holy season, when commercialism sometimes can obscure the true meaning of Christmas, consider giving a gift from the heart that friends and loved ones will cherish.

The creative gift ideas in Food For The Poor’s Gift Catalog will continue to change lives long after Christmas has passed. Delight your loved ones with a thoughtful gift given in his or her honor to the poor. For $36, you can give the gift of life by feeding a malnourished child for a year. Or you can choose to give farm animals such as chickens, pigs, goats, donkeys and cows to provide an income and source of nutrition for destitute families.

“Christmas is the perfect time to bless the ones you love by giving in their honor a life-changing gift to those who struggle daily to survive,” said Angel Aloma, Food For The Poor’s Executive Director. “These heartfelt gifts restore the destitute’s ability to dream, epitomize the spirit of giving and fit any budget.”

To read more, click here.

Food For The Poor awarded USDA program funding for Nicaragua

2011-10-11T12:34:00.000-07:00

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded Food For The Poor 4,690 metric tons of food for children in Nicaragua over the next three years. The goal is to improve the education, nutrition, and health conditions of school-aged children in under-served communities in Nicaragua. During a three year period, approximately 275 containers of food will be distributed in the country’s most impoverished communities.

The World Food Program identifies Nicaragua as the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, behind only Haiti in terms of per capita income and the market value of all goods and services produced in the country. Low literacy rates, high dropout numbers, and poor academic performance are direct measurable consequences of widespread food insecurity, where low-income households often rely on children to increase the family’s income and in some cases, assist with subsistence farming.

“For some of the students who live in extreme poverty, this USDA program may give them the opportunity to taste milk for the first time,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. “Malnutrition denies many children the opportunity to live life to their fullest potential. More than half of these families in rural areas live on less than $2 a day.”

To read more, click here.

Caribbean-themed event opens hearts and doors for Haiti

2011-10-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

The 10-year involvement and steadfast support from northern Illinois residents ensured The Hope for Haitians Committee and Food For The Poor’s fundraising event, An Evening in the Tropics, was a well-attended event with more than 320 guests.

Residents from the Rockford/Chicago communities showed their commitment to Haiti by funding the final phase of construction for the Hope Friendship Village in Chastenoye, Haiti, and the first phase of a self-sustaining village in Mazere, Haiti. Donors also provided school sponsorships for 200 children from the Rockford Friendship Village and the Hope Friendship Village.

Rhythmic sounds of a steel drummer started the Caribbean-themed event’s cocktail reception and exclusive silent auction. Bidding on auction prizes offered opportunities for guests to donate to the cause at the same time. Prizes included art and collectibles from the Caribbean and Latin America, designer jewelry, luxury vacations, and golf and dining packages. An Evening in the Tropics offered a full night of exceptional dining, dancing and inspirational moments.

To read more, click here.

Houses providing jobs, shelter, hope

2011-10-10T10:37:00.000-07:00

The first phase of a major home-building project on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince is almost complete, just two months after construction started on 100 houses. Food For The Poor, the Inter-American Development Bank, and Fonds d' Assistance Économique et Social committed to building the homes on land donated by the Haitian government.

The Inter-American Development Bank funded the site development in Orangers and half of the cost of every home, while the other half is being matched by caring donors of Food For The Poor. Eighty-six of the 100 homes in the initial phase have been completed, a feat that reinforces the charity’s capacity and efficiency in the rebuilding of Haiti.

More than 2,400 homes have been built by the charity in Haiti since the January 2010 earthquake. While 1.3 million people were initially left homeless by the earthquake, about 600,000 are still without shelter, according to the United Nations’ shelter committee. Getting the people out of the makeshift tents pitched in the city’s parks, plazas and public places is a challenge because most have no place to go.

To read more, click here.

Walkers/runners to feed 5,000 families for a month

2011-09-29T07:48:00.000-07:00

More than 800 walkers and runners participated in Food For The Poor’s sixth annual "5K Walk/Run For Hunger" at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach, Fla. on Saturday, Sept. 24. They each did their part to raise enough money to feed 5,000 starving children and their families for one month in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Angel Aloma, Food For The Poor’s Executive Director, and Kristy Villa, host of “The Balancing Act” on Lifetime Television, were the masters of ceremony for the event. Together they presented awards to the top male and female age group finishers for the 5K run in each of the following brackets: 14 & under, 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69 and 70+.

Billy The Marlin cheered as Harrie Olsthoorn, who led from the start, finished with the best time of 17:51.9. Billy also gave high-fives as participants crossed the finish line. Volunteers from Lynn University’s “Students For The Poor” club honed their artistic talents by offering their face painting skills in front of a 12 foot by 12 foot replica of a Food For The Poor home.

To read more, click here.

Thousands of hands to pack one million meals for Haiti

2011-09-21T11:42:00.000-07:00

A taste of the tropics is taking root in the nation’s heartland. Wisconsin, famous for its cheese and its sports teams, soon will celebrate all things Haitian. Haiti’s food, artistry and music are the supporting cast in Milwaukee’s grand production of a four-day food packing event with Food For The Poor and Worldwide Hunger Relief, Inc.

Thousands of volunteers are expected to fill the Wisconsin Products Pavilion at the State Fair Park, to pack more than one million meals, which will be shipped to Haiti to feed thousands of the Caribbean nation’s children. At the same time, the volunteers will raise funds to build a village in Port-au-Prince.

“To help Haiti become self-sustaining, we have to get the people out of the tent cities and into sturdy housing. Thousands have lost family members along with their worldly possessions, and are relying heavily on the kindness of strangers nearly two years after the 2010 earthquake,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. “We are moved by the tremendous generosity the people of Milwaukee are displaying to help this organization feed the most vulnerable in Haiti. Thank you.”

To read more, click here.

Jamaican Diaspora raises money to support Food For The Poor’s education initiatives

2011-09-21T07:58:00.000-07:00

Jamaica’s Consul General Sandra Grant Griffiths presented Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor, a check to support the nonprofit’s educational initiatives in Jamaica on Thursday, Sept. 15. The donation was collected on Sunday, Aug. 7, when hundreds of Jamaican nationals and friends attended a service at the First Presbyterian Church of Fort Lauderdale to celebrate the country’s 49th anniversary of independence.

“Food For The Poor reaches into every aspect of Jamaican life and maintains a commitment to aiding Jamaica’s poor,” said Mahfood as he thanked the Consulate General on behalf of all those who donated. “By investing in Jamaica’s education system we are investing in Jamaica’s future, showing children there is a life for them free of crime and violence in the classroom.”

To read more, click here.

Hope for Haiti unites Rockford residents

2011-09-09T10:12:00.000-07:00

Are you in need of some Caribbean flair? There is still time to purchase your ticket to The Hope for Haitians Committee and Food For The Poor’s 10th annual fundraising event An Evening in the Tropics, Saturday, Sept. 10 at Giovanni’s Restaurant & Convention Center. Come enjoy the melodies of a steel drummer and a heavenly slice of key lime pie as Illinois residents gather to raise money to build a village in Mazere, Haiti, and provide school sponsorships for 200 children from the Rockford Friendship Village and the Hope Friendship Village.

An Evening in the Tropics will include a cocktail reception, silent auction, and formal dinner with friends and members of the surrounding communities. Bidding on silent auction prizes such as exclusive art and collectibles from the Caribbean and Latin America, designer jewelry, vacations, golf and dining packages offer opportunities for guests to shop and donate to the cause.

To read more, click here.

Feeding the hungry, one step at a time

2011-09-08T13:35:00.000-07:00

There is still time to follow through with your New Year’s resolutions. Lace-up your sneakers, and register to participate in Food For The Poor’s nationwide “5K Walk/Run For Hunger” at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach, Fla. on Sept. 24. The sixth annual fundraiser in Deerfield Beach, Fla. kick-starts events nationwide: Oct. 15 in Fort Mill, S.C., Nov. 12 in Birmingham, Ala., Nov. 19 in Miami, Fla., and April 7 in Oklahoma City, Okla.

“As the previous hometown of Food For The Poor, Deerfield Beach is proud to have been selected as the site for the kick-off of the national series of 5K fundraisers, which will promote healthy activities in support of the very worthy cause of fighting global hunger,” said Deerfield Beach Mayor, Peggy Noland.

Prizes for fundraising through Dec. 1, 2011 will be awarded to individuals in each bracket:

-$5,000 and above – Fundraisers will receive their choice of an Apple iPad or 32’ Flat Screen TV.
-$2,500 and above – Fundraisers will receive their choice of a Wii Fit or Kindle
-$1,000 and above – Fundraisers will receive their choice of a Portable DVD Player or Digital Camera.

To read more, click here.

Every dollar you give today will deliver over $19 worth of lifesaving aidF

2011-09-08T10:51:00.000-07:00

Food For The Poor recently received a generous donation of food and other critically needed supplies from our corporate partners who want to help us alleviate the suffering of hungry children and their families. But in order to provide this aid as quickly as possible, we need your help to cover shipping and distribution expenses. Every dollar you give today will provide more than $19 worth of lifesaving aid to children and families in need.

Please help by visiting www.foodforthepoor.org/shippingappeal and making a donation today.

EVERY gift matters. EVERY gift will help save lives.

Eco-friendly, waterless toilets promote good health

2011-09-02T13:36:00.000-07:00

To replace dangerous pit latrines and provide schools and communities with access to proper sanitation, Food For The Poor has launched an initiative to install eco-friendly, waterless toilets in locations throughout St. Catherine’s parish, Jamaica.

“In our efforts to bring sustainable solutions to those we serve, we were eager to invest in a test of this environmentally friendly technology,” said Robin Mahfood, Food For The Poor’s President/CEO. “This innovative solution will allow Food For The Poor to improve the living conditions of the poor, regardless of their proximity to water.”

After a three-month trial period, Food For The Poor will determine whether this environmentally friendly sanitation system will be included in schools and homes constructed by the nonprofit organization in Haiti and Jamaica. Initial test sites include Quarry Hill, St. John’s Road, Naseberry Grove, Kitson Town, Jobs Lane, and Macca Tree. The toilets have a low annual maintenance cost and a life span of more than 50 years. Enviro Options has tested and evaluated the Enviro Loo since 1993 to ensure the product is a safe, sustainable solution.

To read more, click here.

Tie-dying teen challenges you to vote and refresh the world

2011-09-02T11:40:00.000-07:00

Register to vote in Pepsi’s Refresh Project, and with a click of your mouse you can empower high school students to establish Food For The Poor-related clubs. Samantha Kerker, 16, passionately believes all high school students should have the opportunity to witness poverty firsthand, and to give back to their community before they graduate.

Samantha’s idea to start “Students For The Poor” clubs in Palm Beach County was inspired by the questions her peers asked about her Food For The Poor mission trip to Nicaragua. She found the travel experience to a developing country to be so unlike her experiences in the United States.

“When I returned home from Nicaragua, I had a lot of explaining to do,” said Samantha, who tie-dyed her way to building her first Food For The Poor home for a destitute Nicaraguan family in December 2010. “I had to explain to my friends that in remote villages in developing countries, some people live in dilapidated shacks with dirt floors and have to walk for miles to find water. Their priorities are their immediate needs for survival – food, water, and shelter – not electricity to charge cell phones or to power laptop computers.”

To read more, click here.

Tri-county exhibit: a showcase for artists, a benefit for the poor

2011-09-02T11:30:00.000-07:00

An art exhibition may be a delight for the eyes, but the creativity it takes to make an image come to life takes talent and passion. Food For The Poor is also passionate about what it does on behalf of the poor, and is excited about its first “Art Embracing Hope” or “Härt Exhibition" that it will host in three South Florida cities this fall.

A kaleidoscope of nearly two dozen international and local artists will delight, dazzle and inspire with their visual interpretations. Every work of art is for sale, and each piece sold will allow Food For The Poor to provide much needed help to hundreds of destitute families in the countries we serve.

Here’s how it will work: At each venue, there will be a silent auction, a raffle and an opportunity to donate. A percentage of each art piece sold also will go to the artist. Some of the drawings to be auctioned were created by the children Food For The Poor serves in Latin America.

To read more, click here.

Food For The Poor to buy rice from Haitian farmers

2011-09-01T13:44:00.000-07:00

In a move to help Haitian farmers as well as to supply food even more efficiently to the hungry in that country, the international relief and development agency Food For The Poor will start buying rice from 2,000 farmers in the area most affected by the 2010 earthquake. The partnership will begin today and will provide a third of the rice that the charity needs for its feeding programs in Haiti.

"This initiative is going to help the rice growers increase their production and grow a better strain of rice through help we are providing," said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. "We are happy we're able to work with the farmers in this way, and we believe it will help us better meet the needs of the poor we serve."

The program will begin with Food For The Poor buying about 200 tons of rice each month, but Mahfood said he hopes that will continue to grow as the farmers have more success with their crops. "We will buy everything they produce," he said.

To read more, click here.

Out of debris and despair, progress in Port-au-Prince

2011-08-19T10:56:00.000-07:00

Rubble that has lined vacant sections of Port-au-Prince since the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake is finally being cleared to make way for much needed housing in the Caribbean nation's capital and most populous city. Food For The Poor is about to start a major housing development project on the outskirts of the city with the Inter-American Development Bank.

"I am thrilled because the construction projects we've been able to accomplish in other parts of Haiti can now begin closer to Port-au-Prince," said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. "Thanks to our donors, we have built more than 2,200 homes in Haiti since the earthquake. People desperate for shelter will now have a chance to move from the tents into sound houses."

Late last week, Food For The Poor, the Inter-American Development Bank, and Fonds d' Assistance Économique et Social made the commitment to construct the first phase of 100 houses. The homes will be built on land donated by the Haitian government in Orangers, which is located just north of Port-au-Prince. The Inter-American Development Bank will fund the site development and half of the cost of every home, while the other half will be matched by Food For The Poor's donors.

To read more, click here.

Determined to build a school, 11-year-old needs your help

2011-08-10T11:29:00.000-07:00

In May, 11-year-old Rachel Wheeler traveled to Haiti to dedicate the village for which she fundraised for two years. It was built with the nonprofit Food For The Poor. The residents in “Rachel’s Village” greeted her with a hero’s welcome, clapping and singing songs of praise and thanks. It was here, in the coastal village of Kay Piti, in Leogane, among the new vibrantly painted homes, that Rachel realized that not all children are able to attend school. Determined to make a difference, Rachel’s new goal is to build a school.

“I want to build a school because they need education to make their lives better so they can learn and teach their own children how to have a better life,” said Rachel Wheeler, who was named one of America’s 2011 top 10 youth volunteers out of approximately 29,000 applicants.

Rachel’s school will be constructed in Reap de Morel, Leogane, near the epicenter of the January 2010 earthquake. Prior to the earthquake, 250 students from kindergarten to the sixth grade were registered and attended the school. Classes are currently held in a one-room, makeshift structure that floods when it rains. Rusted sheet-metal, pieces of wood and blue tarps offer students little protection from the weather.

To read more, click here.

Food For The Poor wins Telly award

2011-08-08T08:45:00.000-07:00

Food For The Poor’s ‘The Least Of These’ was named winner of a second place Bronze Telly Award for bringing awareness to the desperate plight of children who suffer horrific living conditions in developing countries. The moving production highlighting personal stories of children in Haiti and Guatemala was selected out of approximately 11,000 entries from all 50 states and numerous countries for portraying the harsh realities of extreme destitution in a compelling way.

“Food For The Poor donors have been saving lives for 29 years in the Caribbean and Latin America,” said Robin Mahfood, Food For The Poor’s President/CEO. “Our donors have empowered us to be the premier providers of aid in Haiti, Jamaica, Guyana and almost all countries of Central America. “This aid takes the form of life-saving food, water, permanent housing, education, medicine, micro-enterprise and self-sustaining projects – all this while maintaining an administrative cost ratio of less than 4 percent.”

To read more, click here.

Second school sustains Stephanie Crispinelli’s legacy

2011-08-03T10:20:00.000-07:00

Wearing blue shirts that read “Failure is not an option,” Lenny and Lin Crispinelli have continued to build their daughter’s legacy, erecting a second school in Jamaica with the nonprofit Food For The Poor. Energized by the fast-paced construction, a group of 33 friends and family members discussed plans for a third school before ‘Steph’s Place II’ in Clarendon, Jamaica, was even finished.

“We’ve got to keep this going,” said Lin, at the work site of Steph’s Place II. “Everybody is so excited – it has been a wonderful experience. It has helped us so much in our healing.”

To read more, click here.

All-Nighter to empower students, unite campuses, fight hunger

2011-08-03T08:37:00.000-07:00

Students nationwide are encouraged to host an event on their campus to commemorate World Food Day in partnership with the international relief and development organization Food For The Poor. Last year, colleges and universities throughout the United States made a commitment to make a positive, tangible difference in our world. In one night, for the second consecutive year, students raised money to build self-sustaining tilapia ponds in Haiti.

“The tilapia-farming project is not meant to alleviate poverty in the short-term, but rather to help this community rebuild in the long run by ceasing hunger and creating jobs for community residents,” said Isabelle Martinez, who graduated from The Honors College at Miami Dade College in April 2011.

To read more, click here.

Outreach and Food For The Poor celebrate milestone meals

2011-07-27T11:26:00.000-07:00

Since 2007, Outreach has donated 7.5 million meals, packaged by volunteers throughout the United States, to Food For The Poor. In the last year alone, Outreach has donated four containers of food, exceeding 1 million meals.

These meals of rice-vegetable casserole, fortified with soy protein and vitamins, have been distributed to countries through Food For The Poor’s network in Latin America and the Caribbean – principally Haiti, Jamaica, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.

“Food For The Poor feeds more than 2 million people each day in the 17 countries we serve. We depend on organizations such as Outreach to help us supply the necessary food to feed the hungry,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. “We are grateful to them, because without them, many more lives would be threatened by malnutrition and starvation.

To read more, click here.

Family celebrates ‘blessing of giving’

2011-07-26T13:30:00.000-07:00

People who give say they feel happier and more fulfilled when they are able to share their blessings with others. Those sentiments were expressed by Kansas City businessman Joe Roetheli and his wife, Judy, who traveled to the remote Essequibo Coast in Guyana, to inaugurate the fourth self-sustaining village they have commissioned in partnership with Food For The Poor.

“We have been blessed in our lives to be able to bless you,” said Judy Roetheli to village residents during the dedication of Georgeville in Capoey. “It is a great blessing for us to be able to be part of the building of this village.”

This was Judy’s first trip to Guyana, and the village was named for her father, George O’Brien Hill. The Roetheli’s wanted to create a living legacy to honor his memory and philanthropic spirit.

To read more, click here.

Feeding hungry families, saving lives, one step at a time

2011-07-26T12:17:00.000-07:00

Dust off those sneakers, if you haven’t already, and get ready to run, jog or walk in what has become one of Food For The Poor’s most popular events in its fight against hunger.

The 6th annual “5K Walk/Run For Hunger” fundraiser in Deerfield Beach, Fla. on Sept. 24, will kick-start events nationwide: Oct. 15 in Fort Mill, S.C., Nov. 12 in Birmingham, Ala., Nov. 19 in Miami, Fla., and April 7 in Oklahoma City, Okla.

Every step will benefit malnourished children and their families – our neighbors, in the Caribbean and Latin America. Your support is needed to quell the hunger pains of children who have bloated bellies and orange hair caused by protein deficiency.

To read more, click here.

Thanks to 13 strangers, homes are being built in Honduras

2011-07-07T10:34:00.000-07:00

Just three months after a group of 13 strangers from varied backgrounds traveled to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, with Food For The Poor, the group has generated enough donations to build a double-unit home.

The new home funded by the group will be built in the Santa Barbara region later this summer. The group wants to build three more double-unit homes and will need to raise $9,600 to make this dream a reality for three more families in desperate need of sturdy housing.

With many families in the mountain region of Santa Barbara living in makeshift dwellings, the construction of even one home can become a community event. The group experienced happiness after they completed Efigenia Ramirez’s 400-square-foot house in April. Ramirez’s neighbors gathered and clapped with joy when Food For The Poor presented her with the key to a new home for herself and her family of 11.

To read more, click here.

Journey of Hope to Haiti: Orphanage, farm, group home and reflections

2011-06-30T19:43:00.000-07:00

Working at Food For The Poor, we often hear past mission participants recall at least one child with whom they experienced a special connection while abroad. For me, that child is Ilsa.

I met Ilsa at our first stop on Wednesday, Food For The Poor’s Maison d’Amour (“House of Love”), a Port-au-Prince home for orphans and children whose parents simply can’t or won’t take care of them. Although the home is designated for girls, there are two young boys living among the 92 residents. About two years ago, someone abandoned the boys at a FFP home for disabled children, and they were eventually transferred to the girls’ home, a more fitting environment. Our group could see that the home is a happy place; we were greeted with the sound of singing as we pulled into the gated courtyard, the children holding hands and skipping around the yard in a human chain. Later, they eagerly gathered around the missionaries, cupping their hands to receive candy and small trinkets.

“Merci! Merci beaucoup!” they said as we doled out Jolly Ranchers and Werther’s Originals from a jumbo bag of mixed candy. They were polite, but the growing circle of hands became a bit overwhelming, and I was dazed by the time the last sweet disappeared. It was then, when I had nothing left to give, that a teenage girl, perhaps 13 or 14 years old, placed her hand on my arm and looked me directly in the eyes.

“Thank you,” she said, clearly and deliberately speaking in English. “Thank you.”

She wasn’t thanking me for the candy. Instead, she seemed to be speaking on behalf of all the children and simply thanking me for spending time with them.

Surprised, all I could get out was “thank you for your ‘thank you.’”

She didn’t speak much English and I knew even less Creole, but I learned her name was Ilsa, and I told her mine was Megan. She held my hand until it was time to go and then walked me to the van.

“Au revoir,” she said, waving good-bye.

And then the van pulled away, on toward our next destination.

By noon, we were at Santo Farm, a nine-acre complex where Food For The Poor grows fruits and vegetables and raises fish and livestock for the homes and communities the charity serves. We walked among the rows of mango, bamboo and citrus trees to six manmade ponds teeming with tilapia and basa (a type of catfish native to Southeast Asia). The tilapia reproduce naturally, but FFP employees must manually inject the basa to induce maturation of eggs and sperm. One male basa fish can produce more than 300,000 fingerlings, each rapidly maturing to about 1 to 2 inches in the span of only two months.

It was evident the employees at Santo Farm are proud of their work. One man, clad in rubber boots, waded into the pond, caught a large, whiskered basa by hand and then held it up for all in our group to see. Another worker, Toto Louis, stepped forward after watching me snap photographs of the young potted fruit trees and took the time to personally identify each species for me. He positioned himself so as to be featured in each of my subsequent shots, his hands presenting his leafy charges.

The journey to our final stop of the mission trip lasted all of three minutes. Our driver, Daniel, pulled out of the Santo Farm gate, hooked a left and drove through the gates of Little Children of Jesus, a home for children with disabilities. Under the leadership of Gladys Nunez, 94 children live at the home and are cared for by 81 staff members (including nine nurses) working in two shifts. A doctor visits twice a week. Like the children of Maison d’Amour, many of the Little Children of Jesus residents were abandoned by their parents. Food For The Poor employees like Nunez, however, take great pains to create a nurturing, family-like atmosphere. To enter the central courtyard at Little Children, we walked beneath a beautiful trellis of dangling grape vines and past dormitory rooms labeled with depictions of Disney cartoon characters. Inside the dorms, stuffed teddy bears and puppy dogs sat perched on neat bunk beds. The children, resting and playing on a partially enclosed outdoor patio, laughed and interacted with us as we distributed rubber bouncy balls, soft candy and other treats. When it came time to leave for the airport, several members of our group were teary eyed, I think saddened by the children’s personal struggles but grateful they know love.

We’re back from Haiti now, back in South Florida at our jobs with Food For The Poor and home with our families and loved ones. Driving home from the airport last night, everything suddenly appeared larger than before, the buildings taller and the roadways wider. Somehow, the ubiquitous I-95 construction wasn’t so irksome. It sounds odd, but I’m more conscious of the current disorder in my house and eager to put everything in its rightful place. Now, more than ever, I want the same for Haiti – order amongst the chaos, beautiful communities like Vialet to replace all the Cite Soleils in the country. Like Ilsa in her safe “House of Love,” every one of the naked, hungry children of Haiti deserves a chance to thrive.

To view more photos from the mission trip, please visit Food For The Poor's Facebook page.

Journey of Hope to Haiti: Vialet & Grand Goave

2011-06-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

Riding through Port-au-Prince today en route to two Food For The Poor fishing projects, it was alarming to see how heaps of trash nearly outnumbered the piles of earthquake rubble. Neither eyesore, however, seems to phase the residents -- perhaps because they’ve had to live with both for so long. We watched in awe as street vendors muscled for room along the crowded, muddy roadway, hawking baskets of fruit and vegetables beside mounds of garbage. Others negotiated prices from stalls of sticks and aluminum siding haphazardly balanced atop the dusty remains of buildings.

It was only when we left Port-au-Prince behind that the living conditions appeared more hopeful. Between pockets of tent cities and ramshackle villages, we glimpsed a lush, green landscape on the bumpy road to Vialet, a district in the city of Miragoane. Coconut palms and corn stalks grew in the fields amongst tall, unwieldy grasses. We were especially cheered when our fearless driver, Daniel, steered the van down a narrow dirt road and the beautiful Vialet Community Development Project revealed itself along the banks of the lily pad-laded Etang de Miragoane lake. The lumbering, rumbling vehicle must have piqued the curiosity of quite a few locals because at least 50 men, women and children assembled under a tree beside our parking spot.

Food For The Poor aquaculture specialist Jonathan Vilaire actually stumbled across this 1,500-person community by chance. About a year and a half ago, he was driving toward another village to investigate a project there when heavy rain forced his vehicle off the road near Miragoane. Someone mentioned the great need within the Vialet community, and so he investigated for himself. Today, Vialet is the beneficiary of 70 new Food For The Poor homes, 250 trees and various livestock. The newest component to the project is the installation and use of five cages for catching tilapia on the 2,000-hectacre (about 5,000 acres) lake. Each cage will produce about 1,400 pounds of fish each quarterly harvest, the generated income of the project amounting to more than double the average earnings for a Haitian. Vilaire ultimately hopes for access to 10 additional cages.

One fisherman, John Wilson, made a special point of thanking Food For The Poor donors and employees for vastly improving his lifestyle.

“He thanks God first, always,” Vilaire said, translating from Creole to English. “He thanks also the fishermen association. And he thanks all of you for doing the work that you do and taking the fishermen out of their misery. He wants to testify about his life: He used to be living under plastic, and his kid had to go sleep with neighbors. He wants God to protect you all for doing the job you do so you can continue helping other people who live in a situation like he did. He wants them to have a house.”

After Vialet, the bus rambled toward Grand Goave, where Food For The Poor donors are helping Haitians support themselves through deep-sea fishing. The cooperative we visited, Tet Ansanm Peche, was established in 2009. Since then, rudimentary, dugout canoes carved from mango trees have been replaced by four, four-man engine-powered vessels that can safely take to the sea and each bring back about 50 pounds of fish daily. One fisherman, Joseph Jean-Mary Gelin, proudly related how he caught an 800-pound marlin from a Food For The Poor fishing boat about two years ago. Most impressively, he wielded a mere spool of fishing line, a simple hook and some tuna to snag the fish.

Our group was wowed by both Gelin’s fishing tale and his great appreciation for the positive reinforcement he seemed to receive from our visit.

“He’s really happy to see you,” Vilaire said, translating once again. “Since the earthquake, it’s been a long time since a large group like that came. He says each time that he gets large groups like that, he gets a breather. He’s very happy. It motivates him to do better.”

To view additional pictures from Tuesday's portion of the Haiti mission trip, please visit Food For The Poor's Facebook page.

Journey of Hope to Haiti: Cite Soleil & Port-au-Prince

2011-06-27T20:30:00.000-07:00

From the window of a descending airplane, Haiti appears as a mountainous green landscape fringed by the Caribbean’s famed turquoise water. As the distance between the jet and Port-au-Prince narrows, however, it’s a concrete sea of cement block homes and haphazard aluminum shacks that catches the eye.

By van and on foot, our group got a closer view of Haiti’s troubled capital city today. We passed the crumbled presidential palace, several gutted churches, collapsed storefronts and sad tent cities along Port-au-Prince’s dusty roads. Most of the destitution we witnessed, however, cannot be blamed on the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake. Sadly, inhuman living conditions are simply a fact of life for much of Haiti’s population. Cité Soleil, for example, was an unsightly slum long before the deadly earthquake drew the world’s eye to Haiti, our guides told us.

The name “Cité Soleil” means “Sun City” in Creole, but that’s an ironic description for such a horrid place. The slum is a maze of concrete blocks, tarps, sheets, exposed rebar and rust-covered aluminum siding. The shack homes and shops line narrow, refuse-strewn streets and a canal system that funnels gray water past half-naked children and skeletal dogs. The smell of this inhumanity is excrement, and it overpowers most newbie visitors. One of the most sobering scenes we witnessed today was at Cite Fequiere, an entire community built upon mounds of garbage. When the paved road ended, we walked on trash, crossing over a sewage stream where hogs wallowed in water so contaminated with plastic bottles that the animals appeared half-buried by earth. We watched shoeless children dodge Mack dump trucks and chase one another over broken glass, plastic bags and animal waste. The scene was heartbreaking, but fortunately, Food For The Poor partners are currently working to relocate at least 20 families from that misery.

Pastor Enock Joseph represents one promising ray of hope for Cité Soleil. Supported by Food For The Poor, he runs a community center where adults and children can benefit from vocational training, counseling and educational opportunities. One room of the center, named the Lynn Computer Room in honor of the student missionaries lost in the earthquake, houses 26 donated Dell desktop for computer training. There’s also a children’s music program that benefits from instruments donated from the United States. In fact, the children recently performed when Food For The Poor celebrated its 25^th year of service to Haiti.

Pastor Enock led us on foot to a Cité Soleil school his ministry operates. The school, which opened in 1960, enrolls about 200 students under five teachers. Without the presence of the basketball court, it would have been difficult to recognize the cluster of classrooms as a school as they were tucked down an alley and hidden behind a gate. Strangely, the school’s best feature was the bathroom, a brand-new building funded by Food For The Poor donors.

The children were in the midst of recess when we arrived, enjoying frozen treats in paper cups, but they quickly crowded around our group to request pictures of themselves and to accept any personal items we were willing to part with. One thirsty little girl gestured at a water bottle a member of our group was drinking from, and when the woman extended her arm to give it to her, the girl clutched at it and quickly drained the contents. Clean, safe water is a luxury in Cite Soleil.

That first school was in sharp contrast to Ti Aiyti School, which Food For The Poor was able to renovate after the earthquake. Ti Aiyti (“Little Haiti”), with its nine newly constructed classrooms, a fresh coat of blue paint and an inner courtyard of fruit trees, appeared as an oasis in the middle of Cité Soleil, a hidden garden protected by high walls and razor wire. Hands on the shoulders of the student in front of them, the children filed into the courtyard and assembled in straight lines. They greeted us with a welcome song, their voices bright and smiles sparkling.

Our last stop of the day was Food For The Poor’s Port-au-Prince feeding center and warehouse. Six days a week, the charity distributes 15,000 meals from the location. The kitchen is an orderly thoroughfare, employees ping-ponging across the kitchen, filling large metal bowls from vats of white rice and soup and then depositing them at the serving window. There, servers scoop steaming heaps of rice and ladles of soup into recipients’ plastic buckets. Each person waiting at the window, we were told, is a representative for an entire family depending on that bucket to sustain them.

It was hopeful scenes like the schools and the feeding center that touched many of us, including Dorna, of Food For The Poor’s Speakers Bureau.

“Despite all the ugliness we saw today, it’s great to see a beacon of light, and I’m so proud to be a part of the hope,” she said.

Journey of Hope to Haiti, June 27 - 29

2011-06-27T03:41:00.000-07:00

This morning, 21 Food For The Poor employees embark from Fort Lauderdale airport en route to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, for a mission trip. With the exception of two participants, the group members have never traveled to Haiti with Food For The Poor before, and the purpose of the three-day visit is to learn more about the charity’s ministry in the country.

The itinerary includes:

-Food For The Poor’s Port-au-Prince feeding center, warehouse and clinic

-Our Lady of the Poor Medical Clinic at Bernard Mews Hospital in Port-au-Prince

-Vialet Community Development Project in Vialet, Haiti

-Ti Aiyti School in Cite Soleil

-An aquaculture project in Santo, Port-au-Prince

-Little Children of Jesus home in Sant0, Port-a-Prince

-Grand Goave Fishing Village

-Maison d’Amour Girls Home

More later.

Office staff takes on challenge to build homes in Haiti

2011-06-24T12:29:00.000-07:00

A large piece of cardboard, with cartoon-like images of a curvy street and houses made of pastel fabric is not something you’ll see in a world-famous museum. But this work of art, affectionately referred to as “the neighborhood,” is so much more. It represents compassion, creativity, and the desire to make a difference in the lives of people three time zones and 3,000 miles away.

American Capital Group, located in Irvine, Calif., is an equipment finance company that has been in business since 1995. ACG leases computers, trucks and capital equipment to other businesses. Looking for a way to give back, the company decided to change its mission statement during a leadership team retreat last year.

“Our mission is to deliver innovative equipment financing solutions that enhance the lives of our customers, employees and community,” said Burke Wiedel, a Controller, with ACG.

It’s the ‘community’ portion of the statement, he says, that led them to Food For The Poor and the goal of raising enough money to build 20 homes for families recovering from the Jan.12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

To read more, click here.

Father Chuck’s legacy transforms lives in Haiti and Nicaragua

2011-06-24T11:14:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been hugged so tightly you could feel the other person’s heartbeat? Embraces full of gratitude welcomed Monsignor Francis X. Schmidt and residents from the Philadelphia area to villages in Haiti and Nicaragua that they have helped to transform with the relief and development organization Food For The Poor.

“We, working with Father Chuck’s Challenge in partnership with Food For The Poor, are performing important corporal works of mercy,” said Msgr. Schmidt. “God blesses us with very generous donors to help very poor but very grateful beneficiaries.”

Msgr. Schmidt’s first group journeyed by boat to Father Pfeffer’s Fishing Village in Baussan, Haiti, on May 25 to inaugurate the 30 two-room home coastal fishing village. Along the conch shell-lined beach, crowds of thankful villagers waded in the shallow water to greet the travelers with song and dance. In addition to building much needed homes in Baussan, the group also represented donors who funded the income-generating fishing village project in the community.

To read more, click here.

Students build homes in Haiti, creating a legacy

2011-06-20T11:13:00.000-07:00

At the same time Haitians came together to elect a new president, a government teacher in California challenged high school seniors to combine their talents through their curriculum to erect safe, permanent houses for destitute families in Haiti. Since the fall, two groups of students at Valencia High School in Santa Clarita have partnered with the international relief and development agency Food For The Poor, to move destitute Haitian families out of unsafe housing and unsanitary living conditions.

"The opportunity to participate in raising money for a family in Haiti really brings joy to my heart," said Justin Hirano, a senior at Valencia High School. "I raised money by singing and playing my guitar at a park on one of my free weekends for a few hours. Before I knew it people were putting dollar bills into the guitar case."

To read more, click here.

Join SwipeGood today and your first donation will be doubled!

2011-06-20T07:22:00.000-07:00

Give hunger a one-two punch with SwipeGood, a service that rounds up and donates the spare change from your credit card purchases to Food For The Poor! Sign-up by this Friday and SwipeGood will MATCH your first month's round ups, instantly DOUBLING the number of hungry children you'll feed.

On average, SwipeGood users round up $18 in spare change each month. So, if you sign up by June 24, SwipeGood will match your $18 and send $36 to Food For The Poor feeding programs -- enough to feed a hungry child for an ENTIRE YEAR!

Here's how it works:

1. Go to http://www.foodforthepoor.org/swipegoodmatch
2. Click the orange "Get Started" button
3. Create an account or log-in with your Facebook account
4. Enter your credit or debit card information
5. Set a monthly donation limit if you want
6. Start shopping and incorporate giving into your everyday life!

Please join SwipeGood today and help us defeat hunger by changing lives every time you shop!

Rebuilding schools, renewing hope in Haiti

2011-06-15T07:53:00.000-07:00

The sounds of school bells ringing and children chatting away as they hurry off to class soon will be returning to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It’s been 17 months since a massive 7.0 magnitude quake tore apart the earth there, destroying everything and everyone near its epicenter, including 80 percent of the schools.

In May, the ground shook again, but this time it was from the use of heavy machinery clearing sites for schools. Food For The Poor is building the Jean Marie Guilloux primary and secondary school, the first of four schools slated to go up in and around Haiti’s capital.

The two-level building will have a total of 16 rooms including, six classrooms, an administrative office, and a canteen on the first level. Six more classrooms, a library with a computer lab, plus a music room will make up the second level. Each classroom will accommodate 40 students and a teacher. All of the new schools will have a walkway with a canopy and stairway, along with a water well and septic system.

To read more, click here.

Food For The Poor celebrates 25 years in Haiti

2011-06-14T12:37:00.000-07:00

When Food For The Poor first began its work in Haiti, the organization was responding to a cry for help for those living in subhuman conditions in the country’s largest and most dangerous slum, Cite Soleil located in the capital of Port-au-Prince. Five containers of rice were delivered in 1982 to prevent families from starving. By 1986, when Food For The Poor was licensed to work in Haiti, the charity delivered $4.1 million in aid.

Since then, the relief and development work has not ceased. The long tenure of Food For The Poor in Haiti made it possible to respond quickly and efficiently last year when the country was faced with the double challenge of a devastating earthquake and an outbreak of cholera. In 2010, Food For The Poor shipped 205 containers of goods worth $188 million to Haiti.

To read more, click here.

Food For The Poor celebrates 20 years of service in Guyana

2011-06-03T07:50:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the continued support of Food For The Poor donors, the third-largest international relief and development agency in the United States will celebrate two decades of service to Guyana’s poor on Friday, June 3. Food For The Poor began working in Guyana in 1991, delivering food and other basic items to Guyana’s poor.

Since then, the Florida-based nonprofit has expanded its services in Guyana to meet the growing needs of the country’s impoverished residents. Inflation and a high unemployment rate create a daily struggle to survive for Guyana’s poor.

“Few people are aware of the tremendous poverty that exists in Guyana, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. “I would like to thank Food For The Poor-Guyana’s staff for working diligently and efficiently to ease the plight of Guyana’s poor – one person, one family at a time.”

To read more, click here.

Six villages and counting, thanks to a dedicated parish

2011-06-03T06:01:00.000-07:00

For 13 years, Father Richard Martin, pastor of the Church of the Nativity in Burke, Va., has worked side by side with Food For The Poor to help transform the lives of hundreds of families who once lived in deplorable conditions in Haiti.

On Friday, May 27, Fr. Martin presented Food For The Poor’s CEO/President Robin Mahfood with another generous check. Nativity Parish’s 2011 Lenten collection will be used to build 100 new homes in its seventh village. “Nativity Village in Mazere” will be located in Cap-Haitien.

“Food For The Poor has delivered aid and so much more to those who are desperate for help, and together we make a difference,” said Fr. Martin, Church of the Nativity. “I want to thank all of you for being shepherds. All of you are caretakers and shepherds. What would Food For The Poor be without its shepherds?”

To read more, click here.

Homes for Haitians builds hope

2011-05-31T10:56:00.000-07:00

Hoisted high in the air, 11-year-old Rachel Wheeler caught her first glimpse on Wednesday of the Food For The Poor village she worked for two years to build. From above the crowd, Rachel could see the rows of vibrantly painted pink, blue and green homes, nestled along the coast in Leogane, near the epicenter of the January 2010 earthquake. Villagers surrounded Rachel, clapping and singing songs of praise and thanks. One-by-one the residents embraced and kissed the young girl, who helped to move 27 families out of dilapidated shacks into permanent two-room homes.

"There’s a lot of happy people there," said Rachel, who visited with several residents inside their homes. "It’s nice and it’s clean."

Her mother described "Rachel’s Village" as unbelievable.

"This reception is overwhelming, and to look around and know these people have homes because of Rachel’s efforts is just amazing, it really is, it is amazing. It’s unbelievable," said Julie Wheeler.

To read more, click here.

Stephanie’s Mission builds schools and houses in Jamaica

2011-05-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

In their continuing effort to honor their daughter's legacy, Lenny and Lin Crispinelli will travel to Jamaica for a second time to follow in Stephanie's footsteps with Food For The Poor. In less than two days, the team of 33 friends and family members will build a school to serve children, like the ones that first inspired Stephanie's enthusiasm to "Do work" on a mission trip with the charity.

One of the people making the trip, Nikki Fantauzzi, was with Stephanie in Haiti with a group from Lynn University on a Food For The Poor mission trip when the 7.0 magnitude earthquake instantly claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

Fantauzzi, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, drove four boxes of educational supplies from the Crispinelli's home in New York to Food For The Poor's headquarters in Coconut Creek, Fla. On Monday, May 23, before they left for Jamaica, the group stuffed backpacks for the children who attend Gimme-Me-Bit's school in Clarendon, Jamaica.

"Even though Stephanie is no longer physically here, through the work of her friends and family her mission and dream of making a difference continues," said Fantauzzi.

To read more, click here.

Don Moen, Food For The Poor team up to build homes

2011-05-23T11:18:00.000-07:00

Christian music artist Don Moen is sharing his talents with the international relief and development organization Food For The Poor so that homes can be built for those who have no shelter. His upcoming six-city Canadian tour will kick off on May 30.

This isn’t the first time the artist has collaborated with the charity. In 2004, he traveled to Jamaica and was moved to partner on homebuilding. Then in 2010, after the earthquake in Haiti, he visited Port-au-Prince and an area in Cap-Haitien called Shada, and came back to the United States inspired to change lives.

To read more and view the tour schedule, click here.

Doral Overseas Chinese Business Chamber gives second chances

2011-05-19T11:33:00.000-07:00

Performers in brightly colored, authentic lion costumes welcomed guests to the second annual Doral Overseas Chinese Business Chamber gala Saturday night. Event award recipients included Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of the international relief and development organization Food For The Poor, and Chinese-Jamaican businessman, Livingston ‘George’ Yap, CEO of LEASA Industries Co, Inc.

Mahfood and Yap were introduced as givers of second chances. Mahfood emphasized Food For The Poor’s passion for giving as freely as the charity receives. The majority of LEASA's employees are former welfare recipients, high school dropouts and those who were once in the penal system.

To read more, click here.

Hurricane season is fast approaching: Please help house the homeless.

2011-05-17T11:31:00.000-07:00

Desperate mothers like Janice Jerome are praying for a miracle. Earning only $3 a week, Janice can never scrape together enough money for a house that will keep her children safe. As hurricane season approaches, Janice and her family are in desperate need of a Food For The Poor house.

Janice, 40, lives in Haiti and prays and trusts in the Lord. She and her extended family of 10 sleep in a cramped shelter made from a hodgepodge of materials. The front door is part of an abandoned car. Sheets make up the back wall and the roof is a flimsy tarp. When asked where the family’s bathroom is, Janice silently points to some bushes on the hillside. The threat of disease is a constant worry.

The children sleep on the ground and when it rains at night, the whole family huddles together, soaked, praying for the rain to stop.

Janice and her family are not an isolated case. Thousands of families in the Caribbean and Latin America are trapped in the cycle of multi-generational poverty and dysfunctional economies. Housing is the first step toward breaking this cycle and putting local economies on solid ground.

If you believe in miracles, please join with us today in creating one for a family in critical need of a sturdy Food For The Poor house.

Your generosity and compassion will sustain lives and restore hope.

Please click here to help.

Bid on a bargain and benefit the poor

2011-05-16T08:53:00.000-07:00

We’ve all heard that it’s better to give than to receive, but every now and again an opportunity comes along where both parties – the giver and the receiver – benefit. Food For The Poor is gearing up for its second online auction.

Many of the items up for grabs range from elegant to eclectic, and will appeal to a wide variety of bidders. Private island getaways, concert tickets, celebrity and sports memorabilia, jewelry, works of art, and even an Apple iPad are some of the prizes heading to the online auction block May 23 through June 13.

To see the complete photo list of items up for auction visit www.foodforthepoor.org/auction. Once you find what you like, place your bid. You must be vigilant and check on your desired item(s) often because at the end of the auction on June 13, the prize will go to the highest bidder.

To read more, click here.

Marlins, Food For The Poor celebrate Inspiration Village

2011-05-11T11:11:00.000-07:00

When representatives of the Florida Marlins and Waste Management walked into Inspiration Village in Malfety, Haiti, last week, the residents greeted them with marching bands, dancers and words of deep gratitude. Hundreds of men, women, and children gathered in front of the community center to thank the team that raised funds and awareness to build much-needed housing.

In addition to the opening of the village, the group also visited the poor in an area called Shadda, near Cap-Haitien. The garbage-filled landscape there is peppered with crude shacks, unclothed children dirty from the mud, and mothers whose eyes have been robbed of any hope. Shadda literally means misery in Creole, and it was a stark contrast to the new village.

To read more, click here.

Help halt hunger by taking one step at a time

2011-05-11T06:45:00.000-07:00

Dust off those sneakers -- if you haven’t already -- and get ready to run, jog or walk your way in what has become one of Food For The Poor’s most popular events in its fight against hunger.

The 6th annual “5K Walk/Run For Hunger” fundraiser is set to kick-off Saturday, Sept. 24 at 6 a.m. at Quiet Waters Park located at 401 South Powerline Road in Deerfield Beach. Every step taken by each participant will be a step towards raising much needed funds to feed families facing severe malnutrition in the Caribbean and Latin America.

But in order to help, you must register to participate. Please visit www.foodforthepoor.org/walk to sign up, start a team or make a donation. Take advantage of the “Participant Center” to create a fundraising page, share your goal with family, friends, coworkers and contacts, while you monitor your progress.

To read more, click here.

Gifts sure to delight, restore the ability to dream

2011-05-06T07:55:00.000-07:00

This Mother’s Day, celebrate your mom by giving her a gift that honors her legacy and improves the lives of mothers in developing countries. From child sponsorship opportunities, to milk-producing goats and sewing machines used for micro-enterprise, Food For The Poor’s online catalog is brimming with unique gift options for every budget.

For $34 a month you can share a mother’s love by sponsoring a child through Food For The Poor’s Angels Of Hope program. Your gift will provide orphaned and abandoned children throughout the Caribbean and Latin America with food, shelter and access to medical care and an education. The charity has expanded its Angels Of Hope program, so now there are more children than ever in need of monthly sponsors.

To read more, click here.

Water well in Haiti to quench villagers’ thirst, empower women

2011-04-28T10:36:00.000-07:00

As a hobbyist quilter, Mary Pat Palombo feels at ease behind her Singer sewing machine. But she still remembers feeling helpless as she watched destitute Nicaraguan women trek for miles in search of water for their families to drink. That life-changing experience, which still brings tears to her eyes, inspired Palombo to sew high-fashion tote bags for the nonprofit Food For The Poor.

Listening to contemporary classical pianist Ann Sweeten, and using bold-colored fabrics with eye-catching patterns, Palombo is determined to channel her talents to empower women by raising funds to have a water well drilled in a remote village in Haiti. Palombo’s tote bags are available for a minimum donation of $70 toward her water project. One hundred percent of proceeds will be donated to Food For The Poor.

“I call my project 'Totes for Water' because I want to empower women who must tote their water long distances to provide for themselves and their families,” said Palombo, who was surprised to learn that one gallon of water weighs 8.35 pounds. “By doing this, I hope to be sharing my faucet with them. Water is the gift that keeps on giving. Water leads to food, hygiene, hydration, farming, jobs and learning.”

To read more, click here.

Strangers unite in a journey of hope for Honduras

2011-04-27T10:54:00.000-07:00

It’s been 12 years in the making, and now 13 strangers from varied backgrounds will be forever united after making a commitment to help the poorest of the poor in Honduras. The group decided to put words into action, and fund a home building project after traveling with Food For The Poor on its first mission trip to the Central American country in early April.

“I was at my happiest on this trip when we as a group were doing something to help the people,” said Jeanne Johnson, a volunteer from Kansas. “I was so pleased that we actually got to do projects instead of driving past the people and observing from afar.”

To read more, click here.

Food For The Poor focused on aid, efficiency

2011-04-26T12:35:00.000-07:00

Just a few days into 2010, one of the largest disasters in modern history devastated Haiti. In response, the leading provider of aid to Haiti, Food For The Poor, sent 1,461 tractor-trailer loads of food, water, medicines and other lifesaving relief aid valued at $188.9 million. While Haiti dominated headlines for much of the year, the nonprofit continued to send supplies to the other 16 countries served in the Caribbean and Latin America.

In total, the nation’s third-largest international relief and development agency provided more than $1 billion in aid to the poor in 2010.

To read more, click here.

Easter inspires Food For The Poor to free prisoners, unite families

2011-04-21T09:12:00.000-07:00

Since the inception of Food For The Poor’s Prison Ministry Program in 1998, Food For The Poor has assisted in freeing, training and reintroducing prisoners back into the community as productive citizens.

Food For The Poor has released 85 nonviolent offenders in Guyana, Haiti and Jamaica in time to spend Holy Week with their families. These prisoners were incarcerated due to their inability to pay the required fines, even though the amounts are minimal. Sometimes by the time they are tried, they have spent years longer in jail than their prison sentence requires.

“Prison conditions and poverty are drastically worse in developing countries than they are in the United States,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. “Overcrowded prisons are common, and perpetuate the spread of disease and violence. Through Food For The Poor’s Prison Ministry program, we want to help nonviolent offenders make a fresh start.”

To read more, click here.

Only FIVE days left to make your donation count DOUBLE!

2011-04-19T07:18:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a group of our generous donors, you now have the power to feed twice as many hungry children, to provide the food they so desperately need to survive.

Send your gift before this Sunday -- Easter -- and it will be matched, dollar-for-dollar. To help, please visit www.foodforthepoor.org/eastergift.

Haitian Marie Geleen and her baby, Nelanda, 1, are pictured here. They live in an area that grows rice, but they can’t find any buyers for their rice, so there is no money for fruits, vegetables, and protein. Last year’s rice crop was spoiled by floods, so there is even less food than normal. Like thousands of other Haitian children, the young Gelens are suffering from malnutrition, slowly starving to death.

Hunger in Haiti is threatening innocent children’s chances for survival. World food prices have hit a record high and will likely not fall soon. This is devastating news for poor families struggling to recover from last year’s catastrophic earthquake, the recent cholera outbreak, and flooding. Vulnerable and anguished, they are forced to watch their children starve.

You can provide lifesaving food to starving children today and provide nutrition to children who have nothing. Please visit www.foodforthepoor.org/eastergift today to help.

Thank you for your continued support!

WLRN campaign feeds 780 children in Haiti for 6 months

2011-04-18T08:35:00.000-07:00

More than 780 children in Haiti will be fed for six months, thanks to the generosity of Friends of WLRN and compassionate public radio listeners. For every $100 committed by supporters who called to make a donation on March 17, Friends of WLRN sent $18 to Food For The Poor.

At a time when soaring food and fuel prices are threatening nonprofits’ ability to get lifesaving food to the poor, the March 17 campaign was especially appreciated by the international development and relief agency.

“This gift of money for food could not have come at a better time,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. “Everything is costing more, and these children are depending on us to give them simple meals that will give them life and hope for one more day. We are very grateful for the support of Friends of WLRN and 91.3 WLRN.”

To read more, click here.

Lynn University students rough it, paying tribute to friends’ legacies and the poor

2011-04-14T06:54:00.000-07:00

For the third year, Lynn University’s Students For The Poor slept, ate and studied on the university’s lawn inside tents and a structure that portrays housing built by Food For The Poor in developing countries. By sleeping outside and limiting themselves to one meal of rice and beans a day the week of April 4-7, they brought attention to deplorable living conditions that exist in developing countries.

“While they are not going to starve, they will be hungry – while they will not be wet or cold, they will be inconvenienced by sleeping on the ground,” said Dan Hennessey, vice-president of Lynn University’s Students For The Poor, describing the state of the students mid-week. “The idea is by the end of the week students will be a little more cognizant of those who are less fortunate.”

To read more, click here.

Doral Overseas Chinese Business Chamber honors Food For The Poor

2011-04-08T11:52:00.001-07:00

The Doral Overseas Chinese Business Chamber will honor the work of the international relief and development organization Food For The Poor on May 14, when the chamber has its second annual gala to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

Food For The Poor has had a long and fruitful partnership with the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF), resulting in numerous projects in several of the countries served by Food For The Poor. For three years, Taiwan worked through Food For The Poor to send 40 containers of rice each month to Haiti. Then, immediately after the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake, Taiwan again stepped up to help with a donation of more than 400 tons of rice. The two organizations also have partnered on computer, agriculture and aquaculture projects, providing long-term solutions to hunger, not only in Haiti, but in Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador.

To read more, click here.

You can help twice as many children today

2011-04-05T11:51:00.000-07:00

This Easter, a group of generous donors has agreed to match, dollar-for-dollar (up to $500,000), donations received before April 24th. If you send your gift before Easter Sunday, it will be doubled to feed twice as many hungry children.

Meet the Gelen family of Haiti. Can you see that the baby is malnourished and the boy is too thin for his age? They live in an area that grows rice, but they can't find any buyers for their rice, so there is no money for fruits, vegetables, and protein. Last year's rice crop was spoiled by floods, so there is even less food than normal. Like thousands of other Haitian children, the young Gelens are suffering from malnutrition, slowly starving to death.

Will these children survive past Easter? Their fate may be decided by those who choose to respond to this call -- thank you for choosing life.

You can provide lifesaving food to starving children today and provide nutrition to children who have nothing.

Please, send your Easter gift today by visiting www.foodforthepoor.org/eastergift.

Starving children are depending on your compassion.

Forget the registry! Couple wants water well for wedding gift

2011-04-05T06:41:00.000-07:00

The months of April, May and June are traditionally an idyllic time of the year for saying “I do” – but the nuptials for one pair has taken on an international twist, one where wedding guests are encouraged to help people more than 3,100 miles away.

The couple, Nancy Childress and Ken Haffey, sent out this request along with their wedding invitations, “If you were considering a present, we would love for you to support a freshwater project in Haiti set up in honor of our marriage.”

What was the response? “Surprise by some, but excitement and delight from others who understand who we are,” said Childress. “We’re both passionate about doing God’s will and helping others; this is what’s really important in life. We’re not rich, but we don’t need anything more materially; we have all we need.”

To read more, click here.

Class inspires students to take action and save lives

2011-04-01T07:48:00.000-07:00

Civics teachers at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Va., challenged eighth graders to research how they could "Take Action to Change Our World." The program not only satisfied the curriculum, it also motivated students to take action to save lives, one child at a time.

"The thing that I found during my research that inspired me the most is that 75 percent of Haitians live on less than $2 a day," said Christine McGrath, 13, Church of the Nativity parishioner in Burke, Va. "That is less than the cost of the two yogurts I eat every day."

Christine’s school project raised more than $5,600 toward Church of the Nativity’s Operation Starfish gift for the international relief and development organization Food For The Poor. The donation will provide children the opportunity to attend school, and construct critically needed shelter to relocate a family from either a tent city or a dilapidated shack in a garbage-filled swamp.

To read more, click here.

Food For The Poor, Hormel Foods Unite to Help Malnourished Children

2011-03-31T07:51:00.000-07:00

Children suffering from life-threatening malnutrition will be provided with nourishing food through an innovative initiative by Food For The Poor and Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE: HRL).

Hormel Foods, one of the nation’s largest manufacturers and marketers of consumer-branded meat and food products, has introduced Spammy™, a fortified, shelf-stable turkey spread to help address childhood malnutrition. Over the past 18 months, the charity and Hormel Foods have worked in family centers and orphanages in Guatemala to introduce the food to children and their mothers.

“Through our partnership with Hormel Foods, we are able to provide much-needed protein to the women and children of Guatemala, and we are already seeing progress,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO for Food For The Poor. “The children who eat Spammy™ are more active, their grades are improving, and overall, they are happier and healthier.”

To read more, click here.

Take a sip, save a life 2011

2011-03-18T06:57:00.000-07:00

Climate change, disease and natural disasters are all taking a toll on the world’s clean water supply, making this life-sustaining liquid nearly impossible to obtain for some in developing countries.

"Every 20 seconds, a young child either dies or becomes deathly ill from ingesting dirty or contaminated water in some parts of the world," said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. "Many of us don’t give much thought about the water we use, when we want it, we go to the sink and turn on the faucet. But millions don’t have this luxury – their water source is typically a murky ravine. Others are forced to walk miles, several times a day, to get to a clean water source."

Ten water purification and filtration units are currently in the process of being installed in the Cap-Haiten region of northern Haiti. In 2010, Food For The Poor completed 188 water projects throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, including 110 water wells and 30 water purification and filtration units in the Artibonite region of Haiti in response to the cholera outbreak.

To read more, click here.

Powerade enters March Madness arena, after fight against cholera

2011-03-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

Powerade, March Madness’ “Official Sports Drink of the NCAA,” late last year entered another arena in a big way – the fight against cholera in Haiti. The Coca-Cola Brand donated 2,538 cases of its beverages from plants in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic to Food For The Poor, the third-largest international relief and development organization in the United States.

Today jump-starts March Madness, and Powerade’s presence will be prominent throughout the college basketball’s tournament. The sport’s drink Game Science campaign tag line, Focus. Hustle. Hydrate. Believe., also reflects the mission of Food For The Poor’s emergency relief actions.

“The donation of Powerade has helped to give dehydrated cholera victims the strength and energy necessary to beat the waterborne illness,” said Angel Aloma, Food For The Poor’s Executive Director. “Cholera and malaria do not kill people in First World countries where there is access to medicine. In Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, destitute children are often emaciated and their immune systems are compromised.”

To read more, click here.

Redesign Helps Food For The Poor Donors Become Champions

2011-03-16T07:48:00.000-07:00

A redesign of Food For The Poor’s personal fundraising program encourages donors to create their own personalized web pages for causes close to their hearts. As Champions For The Poor, donors are able to share their passion for providing relief to the destitute by engaging their friends and families.

Two years ago, a South Florida fifth-grader utilized this technology to raise more than $162,000 to build a village in Haiti. As a result of her success she has been named one of Florida’s top two youth volunteers for 2011. For another donor, what started as a personal project requirement to graduate from the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, led a teenager to tie-dye her way to building homes in Nicaragua. In addition to shelter, other supporters are raising awareness and money to install water wells, and build schools, clinics and soy product factories.

Some donors are inspired to raise funds in honor of one of life’s major milestones, or in memory of a cherished loved one. To provide donors with a sense of community, Food For The Poor has prearranged the champions personalized fundraising web pages into eight distinct categories; Birthdays and Anniversaries, Weddings and Graduations, Individual Causes, Group Causes, In Loving Memory, Faith-Based, Rebuild Haiti, and Party with a Purpose.

To read more, click here.

WLRN Campaign Helps Feed Children in Haiti

2011-03-16T07:26:00.000-07:00

At a time when soaring food and fuel prices are threatening nonprofits’ ability to get lifesaving food to the poor, Friends of WLRN is reaching out once again to help Food For The Poor. When radio listeners support WLRN through the station’s fund drive, Friends of WLRN will in turn donate a portion of the proceeds to feed hungry and malnourished children in Haiti.

Friends of WLRN has dedicated its fundraising time from 4 p.m. on Wednesday, March 16, to 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 17, to help Food For The Poor. For every $100 committed by listeners who call to support the station during that time, Friends of WLRN will donate $18 to feed a hungry child in Haiti for six months. Through the station’s generosity in two campaigns last year, more than 1,300 children were fed for six months through Food For The Poor’s feeding programs.

Wagner Previato, Director of Marketing and Membership for Friends of WLRN, called last year’s campaigns a success for both the station and for the children, and is hoping for additional support this time for Haiti as the country continues to endure crisis after crisis.

To read more, click here.

One Boca Grande Thanks Another For a New Life

2011-03-14T10:47:00.000-07:00

The leader of the Boca Grande Hope for Haitians Committee and the Haiti Project Manager for Food For The Poor brought a message of gratitude to those attending the March 2 event in Boca Grande.

"Merci, merci, merci…thank you so much for impacting, changing, transforming, restoring, for giving life," said Delane Bailey-Herd, Haiti Project Manager for Food For The Poor. "The residents of Boca Grande Friendship Village in Pierre Payen, Haiti, say 'Next to God, there is Boca Grande, Fla.' I know you cannot even imagine that in such a short space of time you have made such an amazing, eternal impact in one community."

Ben Scott, chair of the committee, traveled to Haiti on Feb. 14 to meet the residents, walk through the concrete block, two-room homes, watch classes in action, and taste the fresh, clean water that means life and health in the country. More than 200 mothers, fathers and children have moved from homes made of mud and sticks into 40 sturdy homes in the village.

To read more, click here.

Families Reunite for Annual House-Building Trip in Jamaica

2011-03-09T08:38:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the importance of family and helping others, 41 Americans journeyed to Jamaica, Feb. 18-21, to give the gifts of presence and shelter to the destitute. In two days, equipped with hammers, paint brushes, and compassion, the group completed the construction of 13 double-unit homes in Jamaica with the international relief and development organization Food For The Poor.

“Each time we return from a Food For The Poor home-building trip, we feel we have connected more deeply with the poor, and feel enlightened and enriched as a result,” said Chris Davitt. “These trips bring us closer to our children, to the poor, and to the others who participated.”

The annual trips offer parents the opportunity to demonstrate to their children the importance and benefits of being good stewards and team players. Since 1999, this group of committed donors has raised money to build homes and schools with Food For The Poor, improving the health and living conditions of many throughout Jamaica and Haiti.

To read more, click here.

During Lent, don’t just give something up — GIVE comfort to the desperate poor

2011-03-09T06:18:00.000-08:00

“We didn’t eat today,” Philomise whispered inside her mud hut in northern Haiti. “Yesterday, we got a little something from a neighbor.” When her children ask why there is no food, Philomise tenderly encourages them to try to sleep so they won’t think about their hunger. The woeful mother then sits up, waits and prays for her husband to return with any sign of hope.

“Can you ease my suffering?”

Every day, Philomise Phanor asks God this heart-rending question. She is a mother paralyzed with anguish and stress over not being able to feed her children. Her despair has seized her emaciated body and soul. Philomise’s spirit has no rest.

Suffering plagues this family’s life. But you have the power to ease her pain. You can bring relief to this suffering mother in need.

Through your compassion, destitute mothers like Philomise will be reminded that they are not alone. Your gift for lifesaving food will bring relief and comfort to those who have nowhere else to turn. Please share your love by giving a gift today.

Haitian Man turns Fishing Boat into a Lifeboat

2011-03-04T08:47:00.000-08:00

Imagine this scenario – it’s the dead of night, you’re in a tiny fishing boat, your body is rebelling against you due to the symptoms of cholera, and your only chance for survival is a three-hour ride in the rough waters from a small island to the mainland.

This is what it was like for 42 men, women and children during the onset of the cholera outbreak in Haiti. The outbreak started last October in the Artibonite region, and when reports of cholera reached the international airwaves, fear of it spreading to the tent cities focused attention on the capital of Port-au-Prince. More than a million people left homeless by the magnitude 7.0 earthquake were now in the line of fire of this waterborne illness, which can kill a person within hours if left untreated.

However, it was the residents on the small island of Ile de la Gonâve, located in the waters in the cradle of Haiti, who were sick and suffering at the start of the outbreak. Because no medical treatment was available, and no one even knew the cholera had spread beyond the mainland, the situation on the island was beyond critical.

To read more, click here.

Soaring Food, Fuel Prices Pose Double Threat to Poor

2011-03-02T11:50:00.000-08:00

Workers from Food For The Poor often find families in developing countries who have not eaten for three or four days. Either there is no food available at all, or they have no money with which to buy even a small bag of rice. Now, because of soaring food and fuel costs, their food sources will be further threatened.

Floods, drought, and crop failures are pushing food costs to crisis proportions. The World Bank reports that food prices have gone up 29 percent in the last year. On top of that, rising oil prices are increasing transportation costs. U.S. consumers will feel it soon, and over the next eight to 10 months, but for the truly poor in developing countries, the impact will be immediate and have dire consequences, including possible death.

“This past year, we’ve experienced a lot of crises, and each one has further hurt the poor, but this convergence of rising costs threatens the provision of the most basic relief – the shipment of simple, life-sustaining foods,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. “If you are helping the destitute, you must first start by providing food that will give them life and allow you to build from there. This will challenge all of us.”

To read more, click here.

Swipe Your Credit Card; Get a Donation in Your Name

2011-02-24T08:46:00.000-08:00

Helping Food For The Poor serve the destitute has never been easier, and now a two-day campaign in March with SwipeGood will provide a bigger boost to charitable giving.

On March 2 and 3, anyone who signs up their credit card for a SwipeGood donation to Food For The Poor will have a $10 donation made by SwipeGood to the charity. Food For The Poor has teamed up with SwipeGood, a company that helps nonprofit organizations make fundraising more efficient for those who are not into texting or online giving.

"Food For The Poor partnered with SwipeGood with the goal of increasing our help to the poorest of the poor by implementing new fundraising efforts. We believe this latest campaign will allow anyone who wants to help the charity to multiply their donation during this two-day period. We rely on the generosity of our donors, and we're grateful for the help they provide," said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor.

To read more, click here.

"This is Life," Leader Says on Visit to Boca Grande Village

2011-02-21T11:21:00.000-08:00

When Ben Scott walked into Boca Grande Friendship Village in Pierre Payen, Haiti, on Valentine’s Day, he was struck first by the hope and confidence he saw in the eyes and faces of the people who live there. “They are a community, they have a leader, they are content,” he said. “This is life.”

Scott, chairman of the Boca Grande Hope for Haitians Committee, traveled to Haiti on Feb. 14 to meet the residents, walk through the concrete block two-room homes, watch classes in action, and taste the fresh, clean water that means life and health in the country. More than 200 mothers, fathers, and children have moved from homes made of mud and sticks into 40 sturdy homes in the village.

Building on last year’s successful mission to change lives in Haiti, the Boca Grande committee is launching its second phase of the campaign. The committee’s fundraising event will be on Wednesday, March 2, at 6 p.m. at the historic Power House Boca Bay Pass Club. Everyone living on Boca Grande is invited to attend the cocktail reception and learn more about how the village already is changing lives, as well as plans for future growth.

To read more, click here.