- Child Aid, as part of its ongoing OPERATION WHITE FLAG HUNGER RELIEF, feeds 387 hungry families in the area of Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala.
- ECOM Agroindustrial Corporation and others to ensure food delivery reaches communities hard-hit by economic fallout from the COVID-19 crisis.
Portland, Oregon, September 14, 2020 — Literacy nonprofit Child Aid launches today a third food delivery round through its Operation White Flag Hunger Relief. This third delivery ensures emergency shelf-stable food will reach 387 families (roughly 2,000 people) in Guatemala. The week-long effort will act as a stopgap measure to stave off starvation during the COVID-19 crisis.
“Our food relief efforts continue because Guatemala’s hunger crisis escalates unabated,” said Child Aid CEO Nancy Press. “Our hope is to reach children and their families with lifesaving food boxes who might otherwise suffer catastrophic hunger.”
Child Aid partners with leading global commodity merchant and sustainable supply chain management company ECOM; United Way Guatemala; coffee co-operatives AAPOSA, APROCAFE and La Voz; and Jim’s Organic Coffee to ensure safe delivery of this lifesaving food.
“Most coffee communities depend almost entirely on coffee crops for their livelihoods,” says ECOM Guatemala Head Fernando Quintanal. “The pandemic has brought additional hardships, so we thought this was a good time to give this aid.”
Each food box delivered contains shelf-stable food and emergency supplies to sustain a family of six for 21 days.
Each food box is filled with these staples and more:
- One pound of beans
- One pound of rice
- One liter of oil
- One pound of noodles
- Powdered milk
- Salt
- Sugar
- Hand sanitizer
- Vitamins for children
- One Spanish-language children’s storybook
During Operation White Flag Hunger Relief, Child Aid has helped feed more than 12,000 people, using its extensive network of local leaders to make possible food distributions in the geographically remote and impoverished communities where our organizations work.
THE PROBLEM:
In response to the spread of the Coronavirus in Guatemala, the government has implemented strict curfews, shut down schools (where many students received their only meal of the day) and implemented social distancing rules that nearly crippled the informal economy. The sudden dip in tourism revenue also hurt the financial health of Guatemala. Inflation and food insecurity followed, and families who normally teeter on the edge of extreme poverty find themselves, without immediate intervention, facing starvation. The Guatemalan government has responded with several food relief drops — and Child Aid assisted in several distributions — but there are long time gaps between food drops, the last one being nearly two months ago. In the meantime, children we know and love are suffering the terrible and life-long effects of slow starvation.
WHY CHILD AID?
Our organization is uniquely suited to this emergency situation. Normally, Child Aid provides books and school supplies to some of the most impoverished and geographically remote villages. Today, our local staff members are using their unique management skills and know-how to deliver emergency food into geographically inaccessible areas.
Child Aid’s greatest hope is to reach the most vulnerable children and their families with life-saving food.
For more information about Child Aid’s Operation White Flag Hunger Relief or to arrange interviews or access photos and videos, please contact Child Aid Director of Public Relations Helyn Trickey Bradley @ 404-384-4143 or helyn.bradley@child-aid.org
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ABOUT CHILD AID: We are a Portland-based literacy nonprofit working to bring books and comprehensive teacher training to elementary-age children in some of the poorest communities in Guatemala. To date, our organization works in 211 schools, reaching nearly 81,000 children with transformative education and literacy skills.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Helyn Trickey Bradley // Child Aid Public Relations Manager // C – 404-384-4143 // helyn.bradely@child-aid.org