Hunger does not discriminate – it affects people of all religions and it affects children, senior citizens, the unemployed, the mentally and physically challenged, homeless people, the working poor and victims of natural disasters. But children are the largest segment of our society experiencing hunger. Over 295,000 children in South Florida are living in poverty and experiencing hunger every day.
Feeding South Florida (formerly the Daily Bread Food Bank) has worked since 1981 to help solve the problems of people going hungry, and food being wasted, in South Florida. In the past HOT has provided emergency support for FSF to make repairs and purchase equipment such as a portable forklift that permits them to pick up more food within the allotted time they are given at the loading docks of food chains. We have also bought backpacks and had them filled with food for the weekend for children living in the Little Haiti section of Miami. These children receive free breakfasts and lunches during the week through the public school lunch program but, would otherwise almost certainly receive very little to eat on the weekend.
We just made a $10,000 commitment to fill backpacks for 100 children in Little Haiti for another 16 weeks. FSF uses a combination of food that has been donated to them and food they purchase at super wholesale through a nation wide system. The $6.45 that we pay for the food in the backpack sells for approximately $20 in the supermarket. 3 to 1 leverage.
But where will the funding come in January (2012) when our funding has been used?
We need our donors’ help.
You can ensure that a child can have his backpack filled for the rest of the school year by designating $154.80 to this program. Ten children for $1,548.00. Twenty-five for $3,870.00. Fifty for $7,740.00. And all one hundred for $15,480.00.
Supporting this program permits these children’s parents to send what little money they have to relatives in Haiti that are still suffering because of the devastating earthquake.