The message from Food For The Poor’s compassionate and dedicated partners working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic is loud and clear: food supplies are dwindling fast.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought hunger to millions of people around the world, especially in the developing countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. Lockdowns are forcing people to stay home, hurting the poor’s ability to earn an income, disrupting agriculture and leaving many worrying how they will get enough to eat.
But the charity’s donors are providing a beacon of hope.
On #GivingTuesdayNow, gifts received for food (up to $750,000) by midnight, Tuesday, May 5, will be matched dollar for dollar to provide food to destitute families.
This means donations will go twice as far to feed hungry children and their families.
Visit www.FoodForThePoor.org/givingtuesday to support the charity’s #GivingTuesdayNow initiative.
Here is what our colleagues and partners are saying:
Bishop Oge Beauvoir, Executive Director of Food For The Poor-Haiti
“The churches are working with our local partners to find out what their needs are. And need number one is about food. When people have nothing to eat, they turn over to the church and look for help. Brothers and sisters, more than ever, Haiti really needs your help — to help us feed those people.”
Guadalupe Sanchez – Director of Donations, CEPUDO
“We get calls for food but we can’t fulfill most of them. Parents across Honduras are facing their children every day without being able to answer their questions regarding food and safety. To mothers, such as myself, this is a heartbreaking scenario, yet it’s a very real consequence of the ongoing pandemic.”
Father Jaime Enrique Aparicio, Order of Malta, Colombia
“There are many families in the streets. Many are needing a bag of rice or any other bag of food or plate of food.”
Elmer Mendoza, Projects Director, New Horizons, El Salvador
“Due to the coronavirus, the rural farmers will most likely not get their government-issued agro-inputs such as seeds and fertilizers this April. This will prohibit them from planting their crops this May and will affect their food sustenance for the year.”
Jose Joaquin Mendoza Rodriguez, Director of Social Assistance Program and Nonprofit Institutions, Order of Malta Guatemalan Association, Guatemala
“The situation is leading to many families running out of food and work, since the state of emergency leads us to be quarantined and, in our case, to a state of siege, making it more difficult to acquire food for our families.”
Andrea Benjamin, Project Manager, Food For The Poor-Guyana
“The poor in the rural areas of Guyana cannot afford to stay home because they need their paycheck to put food on the table and to pay rent and utilities. This pandemic also requires masks and cleaning agents that are expensive and they cannot even cover their basic food basket.”
Francisco Colon, Executive Director of Caritas Diocesana de Puerto Plata, and Janet Rodriguez, Executive Director Caritas Arquidiocesana de Santiago, Dominican Republic
“The help of Food For The Poor is essential to the lives of the people we cannot get aid to yet. Like the rest of the world, we’ve never seen nor imagined something like this, where the entire country is under quarantine. We knew poverty existed here, but this virus is threatening to amplify the effects of this poverty because those who once attempted to provide for their families are now stuck at home by governmental order and for fear of their lives. When the people receive the care packages, they give so much thanks to God.”
Nicolas Arguello, Executive Director, ANF, Nicaragua
“The person interviewed in the papers who stated, ‘If I stay home, my family doesn’t eat’, spoke correctly. Most Nicaraguans are poor and rely on odd jobs to be able to bring food home to their families. It is a scary time in Nicaragua. When I get home to my wife and child, my wife makes me leave my clothes and shoes at the door and take a shower with rubbing alcohol to avoid infecting them. We truly are in need of Food For The Poor’s help to prevent so many people from dying.”
Craig Moss-Solomon, Director, Food For The Poor-Jamaica
“Food For The Poor Jamaica stands at the forefront of this crisis so we see the desperation of those who have lost their jobs and those struggling to survive. Now, we are working harder than ever before, to provide as much support as we can, so that together, we can overcome the coronavirus threat. The homeless, the newly impoverished, the vulnerable and those struggling to make ends meet need us now more than ever, so we see it as our duty to ensure that those we serve are not forced to bear the burden of not having essential supplies, such as food, especially during these difficult times. We rely on partnerships to provide for the less fortunate. Jamaicans are very resilient by nature and we believe that better days are ahead. However, the survival of those most in need is dependent on us coming together as one, in the spirit of unity and brotherhood. We can’t do it alone, we need everyone’s help.”
