Humanitarian missions

	(L to R) Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor, and Vic Ramdass, the director of U.S. Southern Command’s Partnering Directorate, inked a humanitarian partnership.

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (May 5, 2014) – Food For The Poor and the United States Southern Command have signed an agreement that formalizes the charity’s collaboration in upcoming U.S. military-sponsored humanitarian missions in Latin America and the Caribbean.

U.S. SouthCom is responsible for military operations within Latin America and the Caribbean, and has a Public Private Cooperation Program that works to build partnerships for humanitarian and disaster relief actions. Food For The Poor serves 17 countries in the same geographic area, providing relief and development programs to millions of the poor.

“The people we serve are the ones who will benefit from this partnership,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. “By working together, we are able to move quickly and efficiently to help in times of disaster or even just to meet the basic needs of those in developing countries.”

As an example of how the two entities cooperate, Food For The Poor and U.S. SouthCom are in the middle of a project to deliver much-needed school furniture to the Dominican Republic.

“For years, Food For The Poor has worked to help the poor and hungry in 17 Latin America and Caribbean nations. And, in that same time, U.S. military troops have provided medical care and civic assistance to communities in need during numerous humanitarian exercises and disaster relief missions,” said Dr. Vic Ramdass, the director of U.S. Southern Command’s Partnering Directorate. “Our cooperation just makes sense. By strengthening our partnership, we can help provide even greater assistance to the nations in the region.”

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.