Feed The Children is observing its 30th birthday in 2009 the
same way it began — by helping the world’s hungry children and families.
In 1979, the plight of hungry children was brought home to Larry Jones,
a minister attending a conference in Haiti. There, he met a young boy
named Jason, who had not eaten all day and was asking for a few pennies
so that he could buy a piece of bread. Jones bought the boy a roll, some
butter and a soft drink, and then marveled that this young man was
starving while grain was rotting back in the U.S. due to a lack of
market for its growers.
Sitting at his kitchen table with wife, Frances, they decided to form an
organization that would bring that surplus food to the world’s hungry,
and farmers began to dump bags of grain in the driveway of the Jones’
Oklahoma City home. From that humble beginning, Feed The Children was
born and now 30 years later, the nonprofit organization has grown into
one of the largest non-governmental supported aid groups in the U.S.
Jason, the young boy who inspired help for the world’s hungry, kept in
touch with the Jones’ and Feed The Children throughout the years. But
after rising out of poverty and starting his own career as a minister,
Jason died last year in his native country.
Still, his spirit lives on in the symbol of Feed The Children — a young
boy with a bowl reaching up to implore the world to answer his plea for
food. Since that first encounter in 1979, Feed The Children has worked
in 118 countries and in all 50 states in the United States, providing
help to millions of people along the way.
Now, with six distribution centers in the U.S. and international
operations on five continents, Feed The Children provides food for more
than 800,000 meals each day worldwide. Feed The Children is also a
first-responder in natural disasters, having provided almost 700 trucks
of food and supplies to victims of Hurricane Katrina, and millions of
dollars of aid to those affected by the Asian Tsunami.
Currently, Feed The Children is focused on communities affected by the
recent economic downturn in the U.S., where 89 percent of its overall
work is done. The second stop of the Americans Feeding America caravan
is set for March 10 in Elkhart, IN, where 13 truckloads of food and
personal care items will be delivered to children and families
devastated by job layoffs in the Michiana area.
Feed The Children will continue its 30th anniversary
observation by spotlighting the plight of the hungry all across the
world and welcomes support from businesses and individuals who recognize
the need to care for those less fortunate around them.
About Feed The Children
Founded in 1979 by Larry and Frances Jones, Feed The Children is
consistently ranked as one of the 10 largest international charities in
the U.S., based on private, non-government support. Feed The Children is
a Christian, international, nonprofit relief organization with
headquarters in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, that delivers food, medicine,
clothing and other necessities to individuals, children and families who
lack these essentials due to famine, war, poverty or natural disasters.
In FY 2007, Feed The Children distributed more than 135 million pounds
of food and other essentials to children and their families in all 50
states and internationally, supplementing almost 800,000 meals each day.
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