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.

Food For The Poor thanks Office Depot Foundation

Thanks to the generosity of the Office Depot Foundation, the international relief and development organization Food For The Poor will be able to provide 4,000 sackpacks for the children in its Angels Of Hope program in Jamaica, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guyana and Guatemala.

“This beautiful donation will allow children to enter the school year with supplies that have the potential to change their lives,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. “We know that if we ever are going to break the cycle of poverty, it will come through education. Through this gift, these children will be offered the chance at dignity, success and hope for the future.”

Caring donors to Food For The Poor have sponsored approximately 3,800 children in 95 homes, which are dedicated to serving orphaned, abandoned, abused and malnourished children. Many of the sackpacks already have been distributed at various Day of Celebration events at the Angels Of Hope homes. The next distribution is planned for September in Honduras.

“The Office Depot Foundation is proud to partner with Food For The Poor in our 2012 National Backpack Program,” said Mary Wong, President of Office Depot Foundation. “The fact that this partnership helps to extend the impact of the program internationally is exceptionally gratifying.  We are committed to helping children succeed in school wherever they may be.”

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