Pentecost Pilgrimage to Jamaica
June 2006

I have begun by providing the facts and figures as well as some general background information on Food For The Poor. This is followed by a detailed description of the pilgrimage journey to Kingston, Jamaica.

Upon my arrival at Food For The Poor headquarters in Deerfield Beach, Florida I was greeted with:

A table fellowship luncheon for those of us setting out on our pilgrimage journey.

A Thanksgiving Thursday Prayer Service where all the employees are invited to attend every Thursday afternoon.

An Orientation Meeting - At this meeting we were introduced to the staff as well as the President and CEO of the organization, Robin G. Mahfood. He gave us insight as to how his family got started in this work, where it is today, and what they hope to accomplish in the future.
concluding with:

A Tour of the Food For The Poor Offices and Warehouses

Food For The Poor is the third largest non profit organization in the United States. Those larger are the United Way, and Feed The Children.

As a boy of only seven years old Robin’s father would give him and his brother a roll of pennies which consisted of fifty and at lunch time they would go out to meet the workers handing out one penny to each worker. At that time in Jamaica a penny would buy a sandwich. So at a young age he was already learning what would become his life’s ambition. By trade Robin is an importer/exporter which enables him to use his expertise in shipping various goods directly from a donor’s place of origin to any of the 16 countries throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. This keeps costs down and enables the organization to work on an operation margin of 3.7%. What that means is that out of every dollar donated 96.3 cents goes directly to the poor. By far this is the lowest operating margin of any major non-profit organization based in the United States. The goods shipped are plentiful from school, office, and medical supplies to food, lumber, and many, many other resources which help in giving the hungry, suffering people in these countries an opportunity to eat, have shelter, medical attention, and an education.

 

 

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