Dani Johnson Has Heart for Poor

Dani Johnson is on a Village-Building Mission for Nicaraguan Families

	Life for Pablo, his wife Maria (back), and their daughter, Rosa (center) and her two sons, who are living in a home built on top of an old gold-mining tunnel in Malpaisillo, León, Nicaragua, is no longer safe. Blasts from nearby active mining sites are triggering sink holes. ABC Television’s “Secret Millionaire” and author, Dani Johnson, traveled to Nicaragua with Food For The Poor in January. Johnson will be helping the international relief and development organization to build a village of 100 homes.
Related Items: See Nicaragua Through Dani's Eyes See What Life is Like in Nicaragua Watch a Video of Dani in Haiti

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Feb. 20, 2015) – Life for hundreds of families living in deteriorating homes built on top of a labyrinth of old gold-mining tunnels in Malpaisillo, León, Nicaragua, is no longer safe. León is located in the western department of Nicaragua and is a little more than 57 miles northwest of the capital city, Managua. Blasts from nearby active mining sites are causing these tunnels to crumble, triggering sink holes, which have claimed the lives of several people.

“We are tormented day and night by the blasts. We are so afraid that our house is going to go down into the ground that we take turns sleeping so that we can keep watch over our home and family,” said Pablo, a local resident. “Every time I hear that sound, I say ‘Oh my God, another person may have died’ and it is worse during the rainy season.”

Pablo and his wife Maria have lived in the mining community in León for more than 50 years, and now share their humble dwelling with their daughter Rosa, and her two sons.

Food For The Poor and the American Nicaraguan Foundation (ANF) had been working on securing safe land for these families when Dani Johnson, ABC Television’s “Secret Millionaire,” author, business and relationship expert, learned about their plight. Johnson, whose father is Nicaraguan, had visited her father’s homeland a few times, but traveled for the first time to the Central American country with Food For The Poor in January. Now she wants to help the international relief and development organization to build a village. So far, enough funds have been raised for the construction of 84 homes, but this is only the beginning of Johnson’s home building project for the Central American country.

“I feel like I wasn’t born here in Nicaragua for a purpose and that purpose was for me to come back and to help, not just my family, but as many people as possible,” said Johnson.

The Santa Pancha Village Community Development project will provide a new way of living for hundreds of Nicaraguan families. Each two-bedroom home comes with sanitation and a water component.  A community center also will be built in the central part of the village. Each family will receive two hens and a rooster, and be trained in self-sustaining projects.

“Food For The Poor has helped build thousands of homes, with the loving support of our donors, for destitute families living in some of the most deplorable conditions imaginable. The situation in León is really difficult, the people there are living in a constant state of crippling fear – it’s mental torture,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor.  “We’re so grateful that Dani Johnson has decided to work on another homebuilding project with Food For The Poor; it’s a priceless blessing she wants to provide for these families.”

Johnson’s journey with Food For The Poor began in December 2013, when she traveled to Haiti with the charity. During that trip, she saw what life was like in the remote community of Kadwa in Mirebalais. After speaking with some of the families living in unfathomable conditions, she made a promise to build a village of 70 two-bedroom homes and a sugar cane mill to provide economic growth for the entire region. Nearly one year to the date, Johnson returned to Haiti with Food For The Poor to see her promise fulfilled, and to find people and a community transformed.

"I feel like a human being. Before, I didn't have anything, not even a place for my child to sleep. Now, I can hold my head high in the community because I have my own home and a safe place for my family," said Cesar Salomon, a Kadwa, Haiti, resident.                                                                                             

Each family also received a solar kit, which includes solar panels that can power three accompanying lamps. Click www.FoodForThePoor.org/danihaiti to see Johnson’s mission trip to Haiti 2014.

“Returning at the end of the year and seeing the elation of that entire village in Haiti was amazing, but this time around with Food For The Poor and King’s Ransom, the project in Nicaragua will be even more dynamic because I know what’s coming and I know what I am going to see when I come back,” said Johnson. “I can’t wait to hand them the keys. We are months away from their brand new safe homes and a new life – that’s exciting!”

Food For The Poor, named by The Chronicle of Philanthropy as the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry 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 95 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.

Cheryl Ladd is an Angel

Honoree Cheryl Ladd Helps Food For The Poor Build Homes

	Food For The Poor Executive Director Angel Aloma presents Cheryl Ladd with the Ambassador For The Poor award at the Jan. 22, 2015 Fine Wines & Hidden Treasures gala.
Related Items: Donate to Build a Home See Cheryl Ladd's Trip to Haiti See Photos from the Gala and Pre-Events

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (January 27, 2015) – Food For The Poor Executive Director Angel Aloma named actress Cheryl Ladd an Ambassador For The Poor at the charity’s 12th annual Fine Wines & Hidden Treasures gala, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015, at The Mar-a-Lago Club.

“This was the most successful Fine Wines & Hidden Treasures gala ever,” said Arlette Gordon, Gala Co-Chair.

“Cheryl Ladd is a woman of substance,” said Aloma as he introduced Ladd to the crowd of more than 175, and talked about getting to know her through her work with the charity.

Since 2011, Ladd has championed the needs of the destitute as spokesperson for Food For The Poor’s Angels Of The Poor program. During the gala’s live house rally, homes for 25 destitute families were pledged to be built in Jamaica. A generous donor has committed to match the number of homes raised.

Ladd and her husband, Brian Russell, traveled to Haiti from Jan. 20-21 with Food For The Poor representatives to see firsthand the dire situation of destitute families. The extreme poverty they saw a day before the charity’s gala was in stark contrast to the opulence of The Mar-a-Lago Club.

“I admire you for so many reasons,” said Aloma. “Especially for the many lives you have saved, and for going to Haiti. You are a woman of great faith.”

“Many times we had to stop filming because she was overwhelmed with emotion,” said Aloma. “The extreme heat from the sun beating down on the homes of plastic and metal did not deter Cheryl from entering the dirt-floor homes we visited to meet the poor. We saw many of her tears on this trip.”  

“To be in the presence of a warrior for the poor is a privilege,” said Ladd, of Aloma as he presented her with a statue of Christ as a beggar. “I know I was supposed to come and be with you tonight. I have seen what happens when you hold back death.”

Ladd’s eyes teared up as she relayed a message from one of the mothers she met while in Haiti: “You bring us so much hope, and you are an answer to our prayers. I want you to know I will be praying for you. God will speak through you to help us.”

“I hope that tonight you will open your hearts and answer the prayers of children and families living in severe poverty,” said Ladd. “Together we can bring hope and a chance for a better tomorrow for so many who fight a daily battle to survive.”

The gala was chaired by distinguished Palm Beach philanthropists Melania and Donald J. Trump (National Honorary Chairs), Patrick Park (Honorary Chair), Arlette Gordon and Elizabeth Bowden (Gala Co-Chairs), Hermé de Wyman Miro (International Chair), Mary Frances Turner (Ladies' Committee Chair) and Russell Sherrill (Gentlemen's Committee Chair).

The Fine Wines & Hidden Treasures gala opened with a superb wine-tasting reception provided by Dreyfus Ashby & Co. and Trump Winery, and culminated with a five-course gourmet dinner and wine pairing.

Live auction items included a Joseph Drouhin Beaune Clos des Mouches double magnum, signed by winemakers Laurent Drouhin and Veronique Drouhin, and by request at the gala by Gordon and Ladd – a Kaufmann de Suisse handmade 18-karat yellow gold and stainless steel callista amethyst bangle – a 12-course dinner for 25 guests prepared by Chef Ron Duprat, a star on the reality TV show “Top Chef” – and a week vacation in Italy. Additional exotic escapes, jewelry, handbags, fine wines, and golf packages were among the varied prizes in the silent auction.

The Fine Wines & Hidden Treasures 2015 committee members included Irma Anapol, Michael Cinque, Michael Dixon, Jean Dolan, Barbara Gilbert, Emilio Guerra, Lorrain and Malcolm Hall, Helene Karp, Moneca Kaufmann, Faith Morford, Michael Nadeau, Sally O’Connor, Daniella and Alfredo Ortiz, Carol Weltz, and Gail Worth.

Gala benefactors included Elizabeth Bowden, Michael Dixon, Helen Bernstein-Fealy, Arlette Gordon, Lorrain and Malcolm Hall, Helene Karp, Patrick Park (Park Foundation), Herme de Wyman Miro (The International Society of Palm Beach), Russ Reid, and UBS.

This year, members of Food For The Poor’s Fine Wines & Hidden Treasures gala committee hosted pre-event parties at two Worth Avenue stores. A percentage of the proceeds from sales at both events were donated to the gala’s house-building initiative in Jamaica. Moneca Kaufmann hosted a kickoff reception at Kaufmann de Suisse Jewelry Designers on Dec. 4, and Daniella and Alfredo Ortiz’s pre-event party at the Daniella Ortiz store on Worth Ave. on Jan. 13.

For additional information about Fine Wines & Hidden Treasures gala, please call 1-888-404-4248 or email carolc@foodforthepoor.org.

Food For The Poor, named by The Chronicle of Philanthropy as the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry 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 95 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.

Haiti earthquake

	Christella, 14, who lives in Grand Boulage, Haiti, now has access to clean drinking water that's being pumped from a well provided by Food For The Poor donors. Since the 2010 earthquake, Food For The Poor has installed 71 water filtration units that purify 710,000 gallons of water each day, and drilled 257 water wells. Together, these projects provide a safe water source for more than a million people.
Related Items: See More Photos on Facebook Donate to Rebuilding Effort in Haiti

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Jan. 9, 2014) – Making the transition from surviving to living has not been easy for those who endured the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti, but it is happening.

Lucienne, 39, and her four children are one of those families. They were forced to live in a tent city after the earthquake destroyed their home, a small business and presumably claimed the life of her husband, who has not been seen since the earthquake. Today, Lucienne and her children have a new life, a new home, and new dreams – thanks to Food For The Poor and its generous donors.

“As the fourth anniversary of the earthquake approaches, and the world remembers the more than 250,000 people killed on that fateful day, it is equally important to remember the survivors,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. “With the help of compassionate donors, the lives of thousands are being impacted in a positive way, thanks to Food For The Poor and a number of great organizations that are committed to helping the people of Haiti to rebuild their lives and homeland.”

The international relief and development organization Food For The Poor began working in Haiti in 1986. With nearly 28 years of faithful service within the country, the organization has been able to work efficiently and continuously towards the earthquake recovery effort.

Since the 2010 earthquake, Food For The Poor has:

• Built 4,364 permanent two-room concrete block homes with water and sanitation components.
• Built and restored 30 schools in the Port-au-Prince region.
• Shipped 4,076 containers of gifts in kind and purchased items, including rice/soy meals, medicine, medical supplies, school and dorm furniture, tile, shoes, hygiene items, household items, cleaning supplies, and construction supplies.
• Installed 71 water filtration units that purify 710,000 gallons of clean water each day, and drilled a total of 257 wells.
• Signed an agreement with Haiti’s Fonds d’Assistance Economique et Sociale (Fund for Economic and Social Assistance) to build 1,000 homes in the northern corridor with earthquake and hurricane resistant materials.

An estimated 1.3 million were left homeless after the earthquake in 2010. Even though housing conditions have improved, today there are more than 170,000 Haitians still living under tents in hundreds of camps according to the (IOM) International Organization for Migration. These camps are dehumanizing, dangerous and are a breeding ground for waterborne diseases.

Food For The Poor is committed to building sturdy and secure homes for as many families in need as possible, supplying communities and schools with a clean water source.

Click here to meet some of the people you’ve helped and to continue your ongoing support in the recovery effort. 

Food For The Poor, named by The Chronicle of Philanthropy as the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry 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 95 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor.

        

Boca Grande in Haiti

	In November 2013, Yvette Mede and her three children in Manneville, Haiti received a new two-room house with sanitation and a cistern.
Related Items: See More Photos on Facebook Donate to Boca Grande's Project

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Jan. 6, 2014) – A joyful noise is slowly drowning out the sounds of despair that once hovered over the small town of Manneville, Haiti. Located near Thomazeau, in the community of Croix-des-Bouquets, some of its residents who were in desperate need of housing and access to clean drinking water now have secure homes, with a cistern and sanitation. All this is thanks to the commitment of the Boca Grande Hope for Haitians Committee and Food For The Poor.

“Haiti experienced a devastating earthquake in 2010 that killed hundreds of thousands of people and left more than a million homeless. During the last four years, the Hope for Haitians Committee has asked the people of Boca Grande to build homes and schools for the Haitian people to help get them back on their feet. In each of those four years, the people of Boca Grande reached the charitable goals set, with tremendous generosity,” said Ben Scott, Chairman of the Boca Grande Hope for Haitians Committee.  

Some of those goals include the following:

• 135 Houses with Sanitation and Water Cisterns
• 2,850 Fruit Trees
• 2 Water Treatment Units
• 1 Vocational Training Center with Sanitation
• 2 Community Centers
• 1 Basic School with Sanitation
• 6 Solar Powered Street Lamps
• 1 Self-Starting Project for Women

The Boca Grande Hope for Haitians Committee began working through the international relief and development organization in 2009, shortly before the Caribbean nation was rattled by one of the worst national disasters in its history. The committee wants to continue to help relocate families from tents to permanent housing.

“According to the latest published reports, there are approximately 200,000 people currently living in Haiti’s tent cities. This is a considerable reduction from the initial 1.3 million. But, one family living in a tent is one family too many,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. “Words cannot capture the gratitude this organization has for the Boca Grande committee, and community, that’s helping us to transform lives in Haiti, one family at a time.”

One such transformation took place nearly a year ago, during the second week of January, when Hope For Haitians Chairmen Ben and Louise Scott and eight Boca Grande Committee members traveled with Food For The Poor to Haiti. During the three-day trip, they got to meet some of the families and to see the dire need in a section of Manneville. Today, that section of town has been transformed into a thriving community of 33 colorful two-room homes that have brought tremendous joy to the recipients.
The residents want to thank their benefactors for providing them with the priceless gift of self-sufficiency. Click here to read some of the stories shared by these grateful individuals.

“The Boca Grande community has made a huge difference in the lives of so many people in desperate need. But there are still so many who need the basics of life,” said Scott.

Scott will be traveling to Haiti the week of Jan. 13, 2014, with Food For The Poor.

Committee members include: Chairmen Ben and Louise Scott, the Rev. Gary Beatty, the Rev. Brian Brightly, the Rev. Jerome Carosella, the Rev. Michelle Robertshaw, George and Lois Castrucci, Patricia Chapman, Ray and Iliene Corcoran, Randy and Sue Eddy, Charlie and Florita Field, Evelyn Finnegan, Lou and Corie Fusz, Stephen and Susan Jansen, Mick and Susan Johnson, Tom and Nancy Lorden, Colvin and Madelaine McCrady, Peter and Elsa Soderberg.

Food For The Poor, named by The Chronicle of Philanthropy as the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry 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 95 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor.

        

Palm Beach philanthropists continue building in Gordon’s Village

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Jan. 30) – Palm Beach philanthropists Patrick Park (Grand Honorary Chair), Arlette Gordon and Elizabeth Bowden (Honorary Chairs), thanked attendees at Food For The Poor’s 10th annual  Fine Wines & Hidden Treasures gala for their continued support. Proceeds from the Jan. 24 gala at The Mar-a-Lago Club will fund the renovation of the Bluefields Health Centre in Gordon’s Village in Bluefields, Jamaica.

“Thank you on Bob’s behalf,” said Arlette. “This was my late husband’s favorite charity – he appreciated the fact that Food For The Poor is a good steward with donations, and that more than 96 percent of all donations go directly to programs that help the poor.”

Park responded by saying, “This memorable evening with friends reminds us of our many blessings and inspires us to help the underprivileged in the Caribbean and Latin America who are in desperate need of assistance.

The Fine Wines & Hidden Treasures gala opened with a superb wine tasting reception of selected wines sponsored by Dreyfus, Ashby & Co. and Republic National Distributing Company. Unique wine selections, jewelry and exotic escapes to such places as Hong Kong were among the varied prizes in the silent and live auctions. The evening culminated with a four-course gourmet dinner and wine pairing.

Louis Jadot Moulin-a-Vent Gamay 2012, a Burgundy from France, was selected to complement the first course of English Pea Risotto with Parmesan and Blistered Tomatoes. The second course of Duck Confit Crepes with Rum Raisin Syrup was served with Torres Vina Esmeralda Moscatel 2011 from Penedes, Spain. Ratti Barbera d’Alba from Italy was served with the Veal Chop stuffed with Apple and Brie entrée. Fonseca Porto Bin 27 from Portugal complemented the trio of cheeses with sweet jams, honey and fruit.

Additional committee members include Mary Frances Turner (Ladies’ Committee Chair), Russell Sherrill (Gentlemen’s Committee Chair), Michael Dixon, Henry and Mary Virginia Fong, Emilio Guerra, and Brownie McLean.

Jenna Wolfe, co-anchor of NBC Weekend TODAY, served as master of ceremonies for Food For The Poor’s Fine Wines & Hidden Treasures gala.

Wolfe’s participation is especially meaningful because she was born in Kingston, Jamaica and has seen the country’s poverty firsthand. The proceeds from the gala will fund the expansion and renovation of the Bluefields Health Centre. On a daily basis, the staff of the health care facility struggles to provide basic medical care to their patients, including pregnant mothers and sick children. 

The Palm Beach community has worked to transform Gordon’s Village in Bluefields, Jamaica, since 2007 by establishing a self-sustaining fishing village and development projects in the community. The project, named in honor of Robert G. Gordon, replaced dilapidated shacks with more than 125 safe, permanent houses, constructed a school for 80 children, built a fish processing facility and provided residents with access to water and sanitation.

In addition to Food For The Poor’s international mission, the organization also supports nonprofits that serve South Florida’s neediest.

Food For The Poor, named by The Chronicle of Philanthropy as the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry 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.