Starvation

Starvation is the most extreme form of malnutrition. Prolonged starvation causes organ damage and is the last stage before death from a lack of food. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, more than 25,000 people die of starvation every day. As a result, 947 million people in the developing world are undernourished. Hunger and starvation are a grim reality for countless families in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Food For The Poor serves the Caribbean and Latin American populations who are battling hunger daily. The people in the areas in which we serve lack the social safety nets that the United States has established for the poor. Governmental aid programs such as soup kitchens, food stamps, job programs, and homeless shelters don’t exist in Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, nor most of the Caribbean and Latin American countries. The only assistance impoverished people may receive is the help that our generous donors can provide. Without the infrastructural resources for opportunity, these destitute communities are starving to death.

The reality is that people who live in many developing countries cannot grow enough food or earn enough money to buy food; there is nowhere to turn for help.

About 80 percent of people in Haiti live on less than $2 a day. With food prices rising from floods and crop damage from the 2007 hurricane season, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Agency has declared a state of emergency in Haiti.

HUNGER FACTS

Some Parents will place salt on the tongues of their hungry. The taste temporarily suppresses hunger.
In the Haitian sun, vilagers bake and eat "cookies" made of dirt, salt and boullion.
Parents add sugar to their children's water in hopes of relieving hunger pains.
Haitian children sometimes tighten belts around their waist to fight severe hunger pains.

Answering THE CALL

Guatemala, with the fourth-highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world faces a serious challenge to reduce chronic undernutrition, currently at 49.3% among children under 5, according to the World Food Programme.

In Jamaica, many of the residents are still trying to revive their crops from the devastation of hurricane seasons past. Food can be hard to grow because of soil conditions and many children do not get enough to eat each day because their families lack the financial resources to purchase adequate food.

Food For The Poor operates and supports feeding programs that feed millions of people regularly. To accomplish this, we partner with churches, schools, hospitals, missionaries and charitable organizations such as the Salvation Army, Caritas, the American-Nicaraguan Foundation, the Knights of Malta and others. Food For The Poor provided approximately 65 million pounds of food to countless malnourished children and their families in 2008.

Food For The Poor feeds millions of destitute children and their families in Haiti. Through our expansive network of island-wide distribution hubs, Food For The Poor supports thousands of partners in feeding the poorest of the poor. These organizations are located throughout the country and are served by warehouses and distribution facilities in both Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien.

The struggles of destitute families continue, they desperately need our ongoing support and prayers. No person should ever die from a hunger-related death.

"Love thy neighbor as thyself"
(19:18 - Leviticus)