COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (March 20, 2024) – Food For The Poor (FFTP) is mobilizing volunteers to get thousands of relief kits packed and ready to be shipped to Haiti in response to an unfolding humanitarian crisis.
For months, Haiti has grappled with gang violence and a growing number of displaced families.
Beginning this week, FFTP’s headquarters in Coconut Creek, Fla., will serve as a hub for volunteers who will be packing 10,000 hygiene kits on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
The packing schedule is Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 to 11 a.m. and 1 to 2:30 p.m., and Wednesdays from 1 to 2:30 p.m.
FFTP has supplies for 10,000 kits on hand and is purchasing items for an additional 20,000 kits. The kits, which include essential items such as soap, toothpaste, and sanitary products, will provide much-needed relief to families affected by the ongoing crisis.
Recognizing the critical need to support women in Haiti, FFTP is also procuring supplies to assemble 15,000 women’s care kits. These kits will include essential items specifically tailored to meet the unique needs of women in crisis situations.
“The crisis in Haiti has left a significant number of families displaced and in desperate need of assistance,” FFTP President/CEO Ed Raine said. “Our hygiene kits can easily be distributed straight into the hands of someone who needs them and provide the essential items to maintain their health and dignity during these challenging times.”
In addition to the hygiene kits, FFTP has 140 pallets of MannaPack rice meals, equal to more than 5,000 cases, from partner Feed My Starving Children ready to be shipped to Haiti.
FFTP also has secured commitments for 20,000 hygiene kits from Heart to Heart International and 3,200 family emergency kits from GlobalMedic. The family emergency kits contain essential items, such as hygiene products, water purification sachets, buckets, and solar-powered lights.
Almost half of Haiti’s population is facing critical levels of food insecurity, with 1 million people on the brink of famine, half of them are children, according to Jean-Martin Bauer, the U.N. food agency’s director in Haiti.
FFTP’s distribution centers and partners have remained unharmed during the recent wave of violence. But the charity’s ability to distribute aid has been temporarily disrupted.
“We have closed the office because we can’t distribute goods or risk beneficiaries coming to the office,” said Mario Nicoleau, FFTP-Haiti’s Executive Director. “For the past two weeks, we’ve shut down. We have goods to be distributed from our warehouse but can’t risk sending them out. It is not safe to send our trucks out.”
Since Feb. 29, armed gangs have burned police stations, closed the airport in Port-au-Prince and raided the country’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.
More than 15,000 are homeless after fleeing neighborhoods raided by gangs just over the first weekend in March in Port-au-Prince, according to news reports. That brings the total number of displaced people in Haiti to over 360,000, according to the United Nations.
In its ongoing support of the country, FFTP has continued to ship tractor-trailer loads of aid to Haiti so they can be cleared at the port in Port-au-Prince. Currently, nearly 150 containers of food, medical supplies, and cleaning, hygiene, and household items are at the port, with more en route.
For months, FFTP has held out hope that the promise of an international police force to help restore security could be the catalyst that could open the door to a massive response of humanitarian aid.
FFTP is uniquely positioned to respond in Haiti, having operated there since 1986 with offices and staff who can deliver supplies to where they are needed most.
The charity maintains a staff of nearly 400 people in Haiti and two warehouses. From there, the charity supports 13 distribution centers through churches and 2,210 distribution endpoints.
“We are looking for that window of opportunity to do what we know how to do and to invite everybody to help us, whether it’s a cash donation or engaging volunteers to help us pack these kits,” Raine said.
Donors can visit foodforthepoor.org/helphaiti to support FFTP’s Haiti relief efforts.
In collaboration with FFTP-Haiti, FFTP is developing a long-term strategy to help Haiti in the long-term. The priorities include housing, agricultural support, education, health care, and youth engagement strategies.
“When we think about the problems in Haiti, we’re going to be thinking across this broad array of requirements,” Raine said. “We understand the enormity of the reconstruction that will have to take place here because people were in need before this immediate crisis.”
Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry children and families living in poverty primarily in 17 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, water, medicine, educational materials, homes, support for vulnerable children, care for the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance. For more information, please visit foodforthepoor.org.
