Waste Management Helps Marlins Build Homes for Haiti

Waste Management presented a $50,000 donation to the Florida Marlins “Homes for Haiti” campaign during the pre-game ceremony on Sunday, Aug. 22. The funds will support the Marlins team initiative to build much-needed housing in Haiti with the international relief and development organization Food For The Poor. Approximately 4,500 Waste Management employees and community partners were in attendance for the check presentation.

For more than 24 years, Food For The Poor has worked to help the people of Haiti by constructing homes and villages, installing water wells, implementing self-sustainable projects, and distributing food and emergency relief supplies. The Jan. 12 earthquake displaced more than 1 million people – most of whom remain homeless today during hurricane season.

“We are grateful to the Florida Marlins and Waste Management for all they have done to bring awareness to the urgent need for safe, permanent housing in Haiti,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor.

“We are extremely pleased to partner with Food For The Poor and the Marlins in this vital effort to bring housing and hope to those in great need,” said Dawn McCormick, Community Affairs Manager for Waste Management in South Florida. “It is gratifying to support our Haitian co-workers, many of whom lost family members in the earthquake, by participating in this effort that will put families into permanent homes and provide them with a safe and more secure future.”

The Waste Management donation will provide 10 two-room homes in the Florida Marlins village. Food For The Poor homes are permanent, sturdy concrete construction with rebar reinforcements, and strong corrugated zinc roofs. The charity is ramping up its capacity for building, and homes are going up in Jacmel, Pierre Payen, Trou Du Nord, Demier, Chastenoye, Delogner, Gros Chaudiere, Mahotiere, Leogane, and Grand Goave.

Marlins catcher John Baker, along with members of the Marlins’ front office traveled to Haiti on July 6 and 7 to see firsthand the destitute living conditions of families in Port-au-Prince, as well as in Cap-Haitien, where some of those fleeing the capital have moved.

“The trip to Haiti was an eye-opening experience; it was an awakening for me,” Baker said. “Most people don’t think of this kind of poverty being just an hour and a half by plane from Florida. Looking at pictures doesn’t do it justice. Until you have walked where they walk, and smelled what they smell, you really cannot understand.”

To donate, go to foodforthepoor.org/HomesForHaiti or text “Haiti” to 25383 and donate $10.

Food For The Poor, the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian agency provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 96 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.