Like many, over the past weekend we watched as the country of Haiti suffered another major earthquake. Currently, our leadership team is assessing how we can best respond. We are reaching out to partner organizations, logistics companies and our donors to develop a collaborative and impactful response. At U.S. Hunger, the words “Haiti” and “earthquake” move us in a way that is intensely personal. I want to take a moment to share with you why that is.

Our mission was born out of a humanitarian response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Our Founder and his family, overwhelmed by scenes similar to what we are witnessing today, started planning around their kitchen table to pack meals. That simple decision to care, a decade later, has grown into more than 830,000 volunteers packing over 150 million meals to impact 53 countries.

In 2020, U.S. Hunger deepened its roots in Haiti by redirecting our international focus to supporting orphanages and schools in countries outside of the U.S. Quite naturally for us, we started in Haiti. And after months of a selection process, the Have Faith Haiti Mission (HFHM) became the first of hopefully many more orphanages around the world. Through the kindness of our donors, we sent food, school supplies, and even toys to our new family at HFHM in January. We also doubled down by sending one of our leaders to spend 3 months on the ground, getting involved and teaching at the school.

We are happy to report that our family at the Have Faith Haiti Mission are all fine and well. The kids are shaken and frightened, but healthy and hopeful. Many of the older children at the school are working through difficult memories of the 2010 earthquake, and the school staff is doing a great job working through this. While our U.S. Hunger team is grateful that our HFHM kids are safe; we know that there are countless other families and children that are not as fortunate.

In the coming weeks, we will identify meal distribution partners on the ground in Haiti and partner to get food assistance to those in need. YOU can provide hope. We are raising funds to send much-needed food to Haiti. We have always been able to rely on Hunger Heroes like you, so thank you in advance for your support!

Hopeful,

Rick Whitted, CEO
U.S. Hunger

EDIT: We have since identified multiple partners on the ground and have closed the emergency #HelpHaiti fundraiser. Stay tuned for more ways to help our friends in Haiti!