Food For The Poor and Cáritas Española Announce New Partnership

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (October 4, 2022) Food For The Poor and Cáritas Española signed a framework for collaboration toward a shared vision to end hunger and fight poverty and malnutrition in the Caribbean and Latin America.

The document was signed during a two-day meeting at FFTP’s headquarters in Coconut Creek by Manuel Bretón Romero, President of Cáritas Española, and FFTP President/CEO Ed Raine. The gathering, which concludes today, included discussions about each organization’s areas of expertise and how they strive to address emergency relief, food insecurity, housing and creating enterprises that help their beneficiaries become self-sufficient.

“Food For The Poor has really understood over the last few years how important these partnerships are to help grow not only our capability, but the other partner’s capability to serve those in great need,” Raine said. “And today, we’ve been talking about our respective core strengths and why this makes sense for the two organizations to work together.”

The document lays out a partnership between FFTP and Cáritas Española for collaboration and coordination of their efforts to create sustainable projects that will help lift people out of poverty in the Caribbean and Latin America. It also addresses the two groups working together in response to emergencies, carrying out humanitarian efforts and working together to raise awareness about their programs.

Signing the document formalizes a relationship that began in an exploratory fashion with a pilot project two years ago. The following food security projects are already underway:

• Guatemala: Reducing the high rate of childhood malnutrition in four communities in the municipality of Jocotán, Department of Chiquimula. The project, which will be implemented over the next two years, will benefit 1,200 people.
  
  
• Haiti: Improving the quality of life for 325 families in two communities of Bas Plateau Central, East Department. The project will increase their productive capacity, help them market their agricultural products, improve their water management and give them access to financial resources for food. The work will benefit 1,175 members of the community.
  
  
• Dominican Republic: Strengthening food security and income-generating activities, benefiting 7,525 people. The project will improve the quality of life of the selected communities by increasing production capacity, improving food security, building marketing skills and providing access to financial resources.

Based on their success thus far with the earlier projects, FFTP and Cáritas Española see the potential to expand into other countries where they both work.

The framework for collaboration between FFTP and Cáritas Española will allow the two organizations to have a much greater impact than either can have on its own. It marks the first time in the 75-year history of Cáritas Española that the organization has worked with an agency outside the Cáritas network, which is active in 40 countries, including 13 in the Caribbean and Latin America.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for us to be here together and to be able to move forward in collaboration with both organizations and contribute more toward addressing poverty,” Romero said.

Romero, whose organization is headquartered in Madrid, Spain, was joined during the meeting by Ana Cristina García, Team Coordinator for Cáritas Española in Latin America and the Caribbean, and Juan Manuel Díaz, Project Manager for the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

During their visit, they are meeting with FFTP team members in various departments to share more information about each organization’s efforts in fundraising, food insecurity, sustainable projects, disaster response and coordinating each group’s efforts in countries where they work.

“There are great opportunities here to collaborate and grow,” said Cesar Guevara, FFTP Director of Partnerships.

The partnership comes at the time FFTP is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 15 to Oct.15.

“Celebrating the culture and heritage of the people we serve brings us closer to them and enriches us as an organization,” Raine said.

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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 the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean 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 www.FoodForThePoor.org.

Cáritas Española aims to carry out the universal charitable and social action of the Church, in order to promote and coordinate the Christian communication of goods in all its forms and to help the human promotion and integral development of all men and women. Based on this, Cáritas Española, in addition to national programs and projects, works on international cooperation programs, developing its work among others in Latin America and the Caribbean, through the International Confederation of CÁRITAS, present in more than 165 countries.

Ernestine Williams

Communications
305-321-7342
ernestinew@foodforthepoor.com