Donated dorm, hospital and school furnishings: Making lives better via Food For The Poor

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (June 28, 2012) – The old adage, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure has never been more true for tens of thousands in parts of the Caribbean and Latin America who are the recipients of donated items processed by the Institution Recycling Network and distributed by Food For the Poor.

“All of these furnishings are in usable condition.  If they were broken or worn out, they would have been thrown away,” said Mark Lennon of the Institution Recycling Network (IRN), which is located in Concord, N.H. “It is a huge waste of resources to throw away furniture and equipment that can still be used.”

These usable goods were donated to the international relief and development organization Food For The Poor.  Dorm room beds, dressers and night tables, plus desks from various educational institutions from across the country have been refurbished for use by a new generation of students and families.

“When we see couches that once filled the lobbies of college campuses, now fill the lobbies of orphanages in Guyana; and when families who receive Food For The Poor houses in Jamaica also get to furnish their new homes with twin beds and dorm-room dressers, we are truly humbled by the generosity of our donors,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. “We are especially grateful when we see donated hospital beds have replaced the worn and rusted-out hospital furnishings that were being used in clinics throughout El Salvador.”

For more than three decades, Food For The Poor has been a dedicated servant of the poor, delivering food and other basic items to the 17 countries it serves.  The organization’s staff works closely with its partners to provide medical supplies, vocational training equipment, and school furniture to various projects such as the Ecole Reap de Morel basic school in Leogane, Haiti.

The school was destroyed during the 2010 earthquake.  The new school was inaugurated on March 24, 2012, thanks to the fundraising efforts of 12-year-old Rachel Wheeler of Lighthouse Point, Fla., and college-aged twins, Ashton and Chesney Hellmuth of Alexandria, Va., through Food For The Poor. The new school has 10 furnished classrooms, a principal’s office, a staff room, canteen and kitchen. Many of the school’s desks and tables were donations from IRN. 

Established in 1999, IRN’s partnership with Food For The Poor began a decade ago.  More than 1,650 container loads of various  items have been donated by IRN and distributed to all the countries the organization serves. The bulk of the donated school furnishings go to El Salvador, Guyana, Haiti, and Jamaica. 
 
 “Some of the schools we consistently work with are the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Boston University, Columbia University, the University of Vermont, Emerson College, Santa Clara University, the University of Central Missouri, Notre Dame University, Babson College, Middlebury College and the Claremont Consortium in California,” Lennon said. “It seemed natural that Food For The Poor might need the kind of surplus we have access to, to furnish all their projects.”

Please go to www.FoodForThePoor.org/goods to learn more about their Gifts in Kind department and about what items are needed.

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.

Contact:
Wanda Wright
Food For The Poor
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6079
wandaw@foodforthepoor.com

Daring and Inspiring: Couple skis across America, fundraising to feed the poor

You’ve heard of people walking, running, or even biking across the United States, but one husband and wife duo did something different –  they literally roller skied from the east to the west coast of the country. 

Newlyweds Santi Ocariz, 25, and his wife Carolyn, 23, are both semi-professional cross-country skiers who believed this would be a great way to incorporate their sport while fundraising for those in need, through the international relief and development organization Food For The Poor.

“It gives us a good feeling to know we are helping the less fortunate, but more importantly we believe the focus is on how our efforts can improve the lives of others,” said Santi. “It’s an ongoing task that we believe every Christian should try to focus on.”

With a whole lot of faith and the desire to raise awareness about the needs of the truly hungry, they packed their vehicle with roller skies, supplies and a camera, then drove from Hayward, Wis. to Charleston, S.C., the starting point of what would become a two-month journey that began on March 7.

With Santi and Carolyn alternating between driving and skiing, the person behind the wheel would cruise along with the skier, who traveled at a speed of 10 mph for approximately 10 hours a day.  Making their way through the southern states, and into the nation’s mid-section, the mountainous regions of Colorado and Utah, the couple said they visited more than 400 churches while on their westward trek. The pair also took time to speak with anyone who may have wondered what they doing were and why.

“It was eye-opening and heartwarming to experience all the wonderful hospitality and generosity of the people we encountered along the way,” said Santi. “The journey was very difficult at times, but also faith strengthening. We’ve learned that we can only plan so much and that the final outcome is in God's hands.”

Once Las Vegas was in view, good friend Judy Krueger joined the couple for the final leg of their journey, which ended with Santi and Carolyn taking a splash in the waters of the Pacific Ocean near San Francisco, Calif., on May 11. 

“Our donors are the heart and soul of this organization. Without them, it would be impossible to help the hundreds of thousands of people we serve on a daily basis, so the adventurous and generous spirit of this couple is really something to be admired,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. “The Ocariz couple took it upon themselves to draw attention to the needs of the starving. Because of their efforts, we have received financial support to feed 106 families for one year. Food For The Poor is so very, very thankful.”                              

Santi and Carolyn have since relocated from Hayward, Wis. to Bend, Ore., where they will continue semi-professional skiing with the Nordic Ski Team XC-Oregon.  The couple says they also plan to continue their fundraising efforts for Food for the Poor.

Those interested in helping to feed the poor can visit http://www.FoodForThePoor.org/skiacrossamerica to make a secure online donation. Checks also can be mailed to Food For The Poor, 6401 Lyons Road, Coconut Creek, Fla., 33073, using the source code 80316 in the memo field.

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.

Contact:
Wanda Wright
Food For The Poor
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6079
wandaw@foodforthepoor.com
 

Village of peace honors son, brother, friend

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (June 8, 2012) – Yeshai Fields was a young man of principle. His family and friends say he was a man who lived with the goal of helping people from all walks of life. So when they lost him in his late 20s, they turned to the international relief and development agency Food For The Poor to help create a memorial to him that would be a reminder of his magical smile and loving ways. This memorial was building a Village of Peace in Nicaragua.

Yeshai Fields

That village in San Agustin, Quezalguaque, Nicaragua, currently is a community of 300 people who live in extreme poverty, battling daily against hunger, disease and the rodents that share the garbage-strewn landscape. It is this community that his family has chosen to transform with homes, water wells, livestock, crops and a community center with a medical clinic.

They are more than halfway to their goal of making it a reality through several fundraisers held by family and friends. The Yeshai Fields Village of Peace will be dedicated this fall.

“The memory of Yeshai Fields will live on. Yeshai always dreamed of providing for the underprivileged. May this tribute and our generosity be in honor of Yeshai’s relentless vision to help bring happiness to others,” his family wrote in an appeal to friends. 

His mother, Nava Fields, said the most important thing in Yeshai’s life was to be generous, and that he was especially compassionate toward the homeless and tried to help them. “He did it because he felt it was the right thing to do, and he wanted to do more. He would always say,’I will make you proud of me,’ and this is one way that I can show him how very proud I was of him,” she said.

Born in Israel in 1982, Yeshai was the younger of twin boys, and was raised on a sheep farm until the age of 5, when his family immigrated to Coral Springs, Fla. When he died, he had graduated from University of Miami’s Law School and was looking for a position as a public defender, with the goal of helping people less fortunate than himself.

“We are so deeply grateful that Yeshai’s family reached out from their grief to create such a beautiful memorial to this amazing young man,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor.  Speaking at a gathering of his friends and family, Aloma went on to say, “You’re beautiful because you came here tonight to really save lives. And that was important to Yeshai, and I thank you for continuing his legacy. From his passing will come new life.”

There will be 24 two-room homes in the village, providing safety and dignity to people who have known only the fragile shelter of plastic, some sticks and, perhaps, some tin. The mission of the group is to develop a self-sustaining village that will be able to take care of its own needs, and provide a life-transforming environment that will reflect Yeshai’s spirit of love and camaraderie.

“We always wanted to help people, and we traveled for a couple of years in developing countries where we got insight into what poverty really is,” said Nadav Fields, Yeshai’s twin brother. “We would take our shirts off our back, and give them whatever we had. This project fits everything my brother and I worked to do, and it is exactly how he would want us to remember him.”

Those interested in helping bring this dream to fruition can visit FoodForThePoor.org/yeshai to make a donation to the project. Checks also can be mailed to Food For The Poor, 6401 Lyons Road, Coconut Creek, Fla., 33073, using the source code 83407 in the memo field.

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.

Contact:
Kathy Skipper
Director of Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6614
kathys@foodforthepoor.org

Children in Haiti to benefit from inaugural 5K Walk/Run For Education

Close to 300 runners and walkers got up at the crack of dawn and lined the streets near the Kane County Government Center in Geneva, Ill., on May 12 to participate in the inaugural Hope For Haitians 5K Walk/Run For Education fundraiser.

“Most people do not realize that an education in the Third World is not free. If a child’s parent doesn’t have the money for tuition, the uniform, or the school supplies – then there’s no school for that child,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. “We‘re very happy the inaugural 5K Walk/Run in Geneva, Ill. was a success. We believe that the primary step in breaking the cycle of poverty is through education, and we thank all who were involved in making this event a successful one.”

Money raised from the 5K Walk/Run For Education fundraiser will be used to pay the school tuition of dozens of children living in the villages built by the Hope For Haitians Committee through Food For The Poor in Chastenoye and  Prolongé, Haiti.

Both “Hope Friendship Village” in Chastenoye and “Rockford Friendship Village” in Prolongé have

50 two-room homes, 50 sanitation units, artesian wells, community centers, animal-rearing and agricultural projects, solar panel lights, tilapia ponds, and feeding programs.

To make a secure online donation toward the Hope For Haitians building projects in Haiti visit www.FoodForThePoor.org/rockford.

Event committee members included Joseph Altenhoff, Patrick Bachrodt, Rev. David Beauvais, Virginia Canavan, William Clancy, Michael Delany, Brian & Missy Hand, Frank Haney, Msgr. Robert Hoffman, Danny Lorden, Tom & Nancy Lorden, Bob McLaughlin, Philip Nicolosi, Patti Rangel, Peter Roche, and Andy Schultheis.

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.

Contact:
Wanda Wright
Food For The Poor
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6079
wandaw@foodforthepoor.com