PROVIDENCE—It is unlike any gift catalog you’re likely to find in your mailbox this Christmas season.
Among the unusual items offered on its pages: fruit trees for $12; 20 baby chicks selling for $25; skills training for sewing or baking, $60; even a share of a dairy cow for $100.
And, for those in the know, one of the best new home bargains in the Western Hemisphere can be had for $3,200.
But these aren’t gifts one would buy for their family, friends or loved ones, however. Rather, they are meant for those in dire need, those who live in some of the most challenging conditions anywhere.
Such are the gifts that can be purchased through Food for the Poor’s catalog, which is available both online and in print form.
Currently the largest international relief and development organization based in the U.S., according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Food for the Poor is an interdenominational Christian agency working in 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean with a mission to physically and spiritually renew impoverished people living in those areas.
In the true spirit of giving – both at Christmas and all year long – the giver has an opportunity to make a real, tangible difference in someone’s life.
“The most popular items are always the animals: the goats, chicken and donkeys,” said Angel Aloma, executive director of Food for the Poor, in a telephone interview Monday from the organization’s headquarters in Coconut Creek, Fla.
The goats and chickens can provide families with milk and eggs.
Poor families can benefit greatly from the gift of a donkey, which is vital for transportation. Donkeys, which can be purchased at a cost of $150 each, are extremely valuable to families living in the countryside, where long distances and mountainous terrain prevent villagers from carrying all their produce to sell.
Feed a Child for a Year is another popular purchase. It costs just $36, but this important gift provides a child with 12 months worth of sustenance.
“It’s such a nice feeling to be able to give something like that to those in need,” Aloma said.
Since its founding in 1982, Food for the Poor has provided more than $8.2 billion in aid and has built more than 73,605 housing units for people in need of adequate shelter.
The organization operates and supports feeding programs that feed two million people a day, distributing more than 61.6 million pounds of food to malnourished children and their families in 2010.
While the program provides assistance to people in 17 countries overall, it focuses its efforts intensely in the most vulnerable nations of the Caribbean and Central America, with programs in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Food for the Poor also operates one program in Guyana, on the South American continent.
“We are the number one provider of relief to Haiti,” said Aloma, citing the organization’s commitment to the people of the beleaguered island nation, which is considered the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.
“We’ve been working there for 25 years, and have a staff of over 400 on the ground. It’s our most successful program,” Aloma said.
He said the gift catalog was designed as an innovative way for people to actually see what their gift will buy, with their individual contribution directly benefitting someone in need.
And people have indeed taken notice of their efforts.
“Our kerosene stove for $5 actually made it to Oprah Winfrey’s catalog of the things that cost little and can give great joy,” Aloma said.
In addition to being a cost effective way to help provide a family with the means to cook, the stove also helps to protect the fragile environment in Haiti, where much of the country has been deforested.
For about $200, a water pump can be purchased to quench a thirsty village, while $240 will provide a beehive so a family can use the bees to pollinate plants, which will in turn provide honey, which is both nutritious and marketable, allowing a struggling family to earn extra income.
For $250, a gift will allow a village to build a portion of a school/community center.
Gifts in the thousands can build entire classrooms, create fishponds, and provide solar street lighting.
At the top end, $70,000 will cover the cost of constructing an entire school.
“We are so broad in our scope that we help in every need in the country,” Aloma said. “We want to make sure they have the means to improve the standard of their lives.”
