Sackpacks for Orphans

Food For The Poor Thanks
Office Depot Foundation

	Food For The Poor Executive Director Angel Aloma, far right, thanks Office Depot Foundation staff and President Mary Wong, to left of Aloma, at the Sackpack Event on Friday, Aug. 1, at a Fort Lauderdale Office Depot store.

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Aug. 4, 2014) – The Office Depot Foundation has donated 5,000 sackpacks to the international relief and development organization Food For The Poor. The charity will distribute the sackpacks, filled with essential school supplies, to children in its Angels Of Hope program.

Through Food For The Poor’s Angels Of Hope program, caring donors sponsor more than 4,000 children in 120 homes. These homes are dedicated to serving orphaned, abandoned, abused, and malnourished children in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, and Trinidad.

The Office Depot Foundation has been donating to the Angels Of Hope program and FFP-supported schools for the past three years, with a total of 14,000 sackpacks donated since 2012.

“These are more than just book bags, these sackpacks are filled with hope and dignity. This is particularly important for the children we serve, who have had very little childhood until they experience the loving care of one of our homes,” said Food For The Poor Executive Director Angel Aloma. “I can’t tell you the excitement it generates when these sackpacks are distributed to the children in our countries. They feel remembered, they feel loved.”

The National Backpack Program is in its 14th year, and has made a difference to 3.3 million children.

“Each and every year, the smiles on the faces of the children who receive our sackpacks and school supplies warm our heart,” said Office Depot Foundation President Mary Wong.

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.