Food for the Poor Canada assisting the needy in the Caribbean and Latin America
May 24, 2022
Tough times bring out the best and worst of people.
Humanity’s compassion and kindness were displayed during the COVID-19 pandemic as local donors embraced Food For The Poor (FFTP) Canada projects in the Caribbean and Central America, giving freely and generously.
Donations helped build 30 homes in rural Derac, Haiti, a school library in Baramita, Guyana close to the Venezuela border and the 24th school in Jamaica with assistance from Helping Hands Jamaica Foundation. Also, 50 Jamaican children received lunches, textbooks and tuition fees, 70 tablets equipped with Wi-Fi were distributed to students and medicine was given to patients who were unable to afford the cost.
In San Antonio, Honduras, farmers benefitted from supplies and technical assistance to grow coffee and start beekeeping businesses, the foundation was laid for 40 women to attend women’s empowerment and income generation workshops and the first school beyond Grade 6 was built.
In addition, three containers of medical supplies were shipped to hospitals and clinics in Jamaica, Haiti and Honduras and 2.6 million meals were distributed to families and children in Jamaica and Haiti.
After last August’s earthquake in Haiti, FFTP Canada shipped three containers of essential supplies and covered the cost of 500 water purification tablets for a flooded community in Guyana, 200 isolation gowns for Jamaican health care workers and clean-up after La Soufriere volcano erupted in St. Vincent & the Grenadines last year.
Outgoing FFTP Canada Chair Robert Ready thanked donors for their passion and dedication to help needy communities.
“None of these projects would be possible without our donors,” he said at a reception after the May 10 annual general meeting. “You made a real difference in the lives of real people. You gave tools to help change the lives of many individuals. Despite the hardships, we face globally and in our own communities, you gave us hope that we are in this together and that you will be there when help is needed. In a world that can be so dark at times, you are giving people real tools and real hope.”
While serving as Canada’s top diplomat in Jamaica, Ready was turned on to FFTP in 2013 after spending a day with late Toronto Metropolitan University Chancellor and philanthropist Raymond Chang and his crew that built Accompong Basic School.
After 36 years with the federal public service, he retired in 2015.
FFTP Canada Executive Director Samantha Mahfood with outgoing Chair Robert Ready (l) and incoming Co-Chair Andre Bastian (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
Joining FFTP Canada was a no-brainer for Ready who also represented Canada as Non-Resident High Commissioner to the Bahamas and Non-Resident Consul General to the Turks & Caicos and the Cayman Islands while stationed in Jamaica for three years.
“I was retiring out of Jamaica and I wanted to stay in touch with the country and the Caribbean,” he said. “I had seen Food For The Poor Canada in operation in Jamaica and I came to know it as a reliable organization in the sense that donors can have the confidence that when they give to the charity, their projects were going to be done efficiently.”
Ready is leaving FFTP Canada in a better place than when he entered it.
“We have got good governance structures in place, a solid donor base that has been very generous even during the pandemic and we have done some surprisingly large amounts of work, whether it be feeding people, building schools and shipping medicines and emergency supplies,” he pointed out.
Ready sits on the board of the Canada-Caribbean Institute established by Brock University and the University of the West Indies to connect Canadian and Caribbean scholars.
“I am assisting them with their governance work, the organization of policy conferences and giving a little more attention here in Canada to the important relationship we should have with the Caribbean,” he added. “I am also helping them define what that should be and how Canadian and Caribbean governments can work together.”
Andre Bastian, who has been on the FFTP Canada Board for four years, transitions to the Co-Chair role he will share with Cherie Payne who is a Communications, Advocacy and Government Relations Strategist.
FFTP Canada has supported Every Child Counts, a special needs school in the Bahamas, for many years. Badly damaged by Hurricane Dorian in 2019, the organization played a major role in the restoration completed last August.
Bastian, who migrated with his family from the Bahamas in June 1985, reached out to FFTP Canada Executive Director Samantha Mahfood after learning about the organization’s association with the Bahamian school.
Andre Bastian will co-chair FFTP Canada with Cherie Payne (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
“She responded and we started a conversation,” said the Manulife Private Wealth Distribution Channels Director. “That conversation deepened and broadened and I started to learn more not just about the needs in the Bahamas, but the entire Caribbean. I learnt about the breadth and scope of what Food For The Poor is doing daily and I was so impressed to the point where I wanted to be involved. What really stands out for me about this organization is that it engages with those on the ground to get a sense of what they need the most.”
FFTP Canada is affiliated to Food For The Poor Inc. that was founded 40 years ago after Ferdinand Mahfood – the uncle of Samantha Mahfood -- visited Eventide Home for the Elderly a few years earlier with Missionaries for the Poor founder Father Richard Ho Lung.
Lying on a bed in an extremely hot room with the temperature hovering around 100 degrees Fahrenheit was Cleveland Christie whose skin was badly decayed. When Christie asked Ho Lung for a blanket because he was cold, Ferdinand Mahfood said he saw the face of Christ lying in that bed and knew he had to do something to help the poor and needy.
So far this year, the interdenominational Christian charity has provided 17.6 million lifesaving meals, built 391 safe and secured homes and utilised 394 tractor-trailers to deliver aid in the Caribbean and Latin America.
