Bishop Joins Board of Directors

Bishop Patrick J. McGrath Joins Food For The Poor's Board of Directors

	The Most Reverend Patrick J. McGrath has been appointed to Food For The Poor’s Board of Directors.

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (January 30, 2015) – The Most Reverend Patrick J. McGrath has been appointed to Food For The Poor’s Board of Directors.

Bishop McGrath was named coadjutor bishop of San Jose by Pope John Paul II on June 30, 1998, and became the second Roman Catholic Bishop of San Jose, California, in November 1999, upon the retirement of The Most Reverend Pierre DuMaine.

Bishop McGrath’s commitment to serve will bring great help to the destitute families Food For The Poor serves. He has been an advocate for Catholic education in California for many years, and now he also will be a voice for poverty-stricken parents who cannot afford to feed their children, or send them to school.

Bishop McGrath has served as a valued member of the Education Committee of the California Catholic Conference since 2001. Born in Dublin, Ireland, Bishop McGrath is a past recipient of the Spirit of Ireland Award from the San Jose-Dublin Sister Cities Program.

“In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis inspires us to ‘change the world, to transmit values, and to leave this earth somehow better than we found it,’” said Bishop McGrath. “I believe that in its ongoing effort to feed the poor both spiritually and materially, Food For The Poor succeeds in making the earth a better place for many.”

Thanks to the generosity of Food For The Poor donors, the charity has distributed more than 70,000 containers of aid to the poor since its founding in 1982. Additionally, Food For The Poor donors have constructed more than 98,000 housing units for people desperately in need of adequate shelter, built or restored more than 200 schools, and completed more than 1,943 water projects that provide lifesaving water to hundreds of thousands of people in need.

For three consecutive years, The Chronicle of Philanthropy has ranked Food For The Poor as the largest international relief and development organization in the United States. The annual survey lists the top charities that raise the most donations from private sources.

Bishop McGrath will join other Food For The Poor board members at a meeting on February 25 at the charity’s headquarters.

“Many of Food For The Poor’s board members fight poverty in the field, alongside those we serve,” said Robin Mahfood, Food For The Poor President/CEO.   

Other distinguished board members, in addition to Mahfood and Bishop McGrath, include P. Todd Kennedy (Chairman), tax and estate planning attorney; William G. Benson (Vice Chairman), certified public accountant; Grace Bonina, business professional; The Most Reverend Pierre-André Dumas, Bishop of Anse-á-Veau and Miragoȃne, Haiti; The Right Reverend Leopold Frade, D.D., Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida; Rhonda Maingot, missionary in Trinidad; His Eminence Óscar Andrés Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga, S.D.B., Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Most Reverend Burchell McPherson (Treasurer), Bishop of Montego Bay, Jamaica; Lynne G. Nasrallah, Ed. D. , adjunct professor; and The Very Reverend Monsignor Honorable Gregory Ramkissoon, OJ, missionary.

“Please pray for Bishop McGrath, as we ask for the Holy Spirit to bless him and all of Food The Poor’s Board of Directors as they serve the poor,” said Mahfood.

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.