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