Food For The Poor in Jamaica

Housing, education and agriculture are major areas of focus, all with the goal of meeting the immediate needs of the poorest of the poor, and helping the destitute rise out of poverty.

• The charity continues to replace dilapidated shacks across the island with permanent housing. In 2010, Food For The Poor, through the generosity of donors, constructed 2,096 housing units. Since inception, we have built 31,660 housing units island-wide. Thousands of people remain on the waiting list to receive Food For The Poor housing.
• In 2007, Food For The Poor (FFP) embarked on a program to improve literacy and ensure that the poorest children receive nutritious meals by providing impoverished schools with the necessary infrastructure. To meet the ongoing needs of schools island-wide, the charity developed three standard structures:
• FFP School Construction Program – self-contained wooden schoolhouse comprised of classroom space, office space, kitchen and sanitation.
• FFP School Multi-purpose Facility – Used for a variety of school needs including: additional classroom space for overcrowded schools, library/reading rooms to increase literacy, labs to teach computer skills, lunchrooms to improve nutritional and health standards and guidance counselor centers to enable educators to address the psychological and emotional needs of the children in a private environment.
• FFP School Feeding Center – Enables the schools to feed children hot, nutritious meals by providing a kitchen and lunchroom.
• Food For The Poor’s Angels Of Hope program has selected 16 orphanages throughout Jamaica to sponsor. Without these orphanages, many children would be faced with the horrors of living on the streets.
• Agricultural development has been essential in developing food security and in helping small farmers and institutions become self-sufficient since 2004. Food For The Poor’s Rural Economic Agricultural Program (REAP) assists more than 120,000 farmers with seeds and tools including gas-operated water pumps and tillers. Food For The Poor works with local partners to help inner-city communities, farmers, schools, orphanages and other institutions learn how to produce crops to eat and to sell. Two notable agricultural projects include the Angels Of Hope Children's Home Animal Farms and the Beekeeping Project.
• The Angels Of Hope Animal Farms provide orphanages with pigs, goats and chickens to enable the homes to provide protein to the children, while the Beekeeping Project establishes income for impoverished individuals by providing tools and instructions on raising bees for honey production and to sell hives.
• The charity continues to monitor and train the fishermen of 17 Food For The Poor fishing villages located throughout the island to become more productive with environmentally sound fishing techniques
• Medicines and other medical supplies are provided to clinics and hospitals across the island. Durable Medical Equipment supplies including walkers and wheelchairs are provided to needy recipients, and medical equipment such as hospital beds, EKG and dialysis machines help to outfit hospitals. Food For The Poor’s Our Lady of the Poor Clinic serves over 10,000 patients every year. The charity conducts health fairs in rural and urban impoverished communities island-wide and provides ongoing assistance to elderly homes, and other institutions.
• Since 2003, Food For The Poor’s Fresh Start Prison Ministry program has assisted in freeing, training, and reintroducing approximately 3,100 persons into the community as productive citizens. Approximately 20 of these individuals have returned to a prison in Jamaica and seven have died. Prison authorities have found Food For The Poor’s Prison Ministry Program to be so successful that they have implemented a similar program. Some prisons now offer inmates jobs in the prison where they are held in order to earn money to pay off their fines. The Prison Ministry Program releases inmates who have committed minor offenses. Inmates are released twice per year – during the Easter and Christmas seasons.
• Food For The Poor’s Computer Distribution program has donated over 2,500 computer stations to schools and underserved neighborhood institutions to teach computer literacy.
• Since 2007, Food For The Poor has donated more than 25 – 40-piece Marching Band sets aimed at reducing inner-city violence. Marching bands give the children far more than music lessons; they teach social interaction, group membership, discipline and responsibility, while also providing a creative and artistic outlet.