Because it has been around for four decades many of us are at least somewhat familiar with the organization Food For The Poor. Readers may appreciate learning more about FFTP’s relief and development efforts around the world. The following write-up has been recently provided us. We pass it on with a spirit of solidarity with all who seek a “closer union with our Lord”.
Overview of Food For The Poor
April, 2023
Founded in 1982 and headquartered in South Florida, Food For The Poor (FFTP) is one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, providing housing, healthcare, education, water, support for vulnerable children, care for the aged, emergency relief and micro-enterprise assistance, in addition to feeding hundreds of thousands of people each day. Since inception, the charity has provided more than $17.8 billion in aid. FFTP operates and supports programs that feed hundreds of thousands of people every day. To accomplish this, we partner with churches (Catholic, Episcopal, Baptist, others), schools, hospitals, missionaries and charitable organizations such as the Salvation Army, Caritas, the Order of Malta, Caritas, CEPUDO, Feed My Starving Children, Fundación Nuevos Horizontes, Living Water, and Minuto de Dios.
Throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, vulnerable children and families often live in dilapidated houses that offer little protection from the elements and have insects and rodents. As a result, illness and disease are rampant, especially among those who are most vulnerable, the young and elderly. Since inception, FFTP donors have built more than 93,600 safe and secure homes for the destitute.
FFTP ships books, school supplies, furniture, computers and other needed items, obtained from school districts in the U.S., to schools throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. We also support school feeding programs in the countries where we serve. For many vulnerable children, the nutritious food they receive at school may be their only meal of the day. The meals not only help a child concentrate, learn and develop, but they also serve as an incentive for parents to send their children to school.
Medical care and treatment often are minimal or underfunded in the countries where we serve. FFTP provides medical institutions with supplies to care for the sick. The charity solicits donations from major medical suppliers of equipment and medicine for distribution throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Of note is FFTP’s special Child Sponsorship Program known as Angels Of Hope. Donors can sponsor a child, and they can then thrive in children’s homes that are safe havens, where boys and girls can grow and develop mentally and physically.
The need for water is critical in the countries we serve. In some cases, local water sources might be polluted or contaminated. Women and children often walk for hours for water source, returning home with heavy buckets that contain their family’s daily water supply, with no certainty of its purity. FFTP provides villages and communities with water wells, pumps, water treatment units, cisterns and sanitation facilities, which greatly reduce illnesses, diseases and parasites.
FFTP has also developed several micro-enterprise programs that help our suffering brothers and sisters help themselves through self-sustaining income-generating and food-producing projects. These include fishing villages, agricultural initiatives, animal husbandry, and bakeries, to name a few.
Lastly, whenever the need arises, FFTP stands ready to send immediate assistance to those affected by natural disasters. While FFTP’s mission primarily is to serve internationally in the Caribbean and Latin America, the charity has responded in the past to disasters in the United States and elsewhere in the world. For example, FFTP responded with urgently needed aid to Syria and Turkey where two earthquakes struck in February. In addition, FFTP worked with longtime partner Feed My Starving Children to host Join The Pack Ukraine in July, 2022 to assist Ukraine during this terrible war. More than 450 volunteers packed 116,640 lifesaving MannaPack fortified rice meals for children and families in desperate need. In addition, the event raised funds to cover the cost of shipping the meals and providing ongoing humanitarian aid in Ukraine and surrounding areas where refugees have fled.
FFTP’s mission is to link the church of the First World with the church of the Third World in a manner that helps both the materially poor and the poor in spirit. The materially poor are served by local churches, clergy and lay leaders; the poor in spirit are renewed by their relationship with and service to children and families living in poverty through our direct ministry of teaching, encouragement, and prayer. Ultimately, we seek to bring both benefactors and recipients to a closer union with our Lord.