Who would think that just by kicking around a soccer ball you could feed hungry children in Haiti?!  It’s possible, though.  Juggling for Joy will raise the much needed funds to provide food for school feeding programs and orphanages all over Haiti.

        Calvary Baptist Church (CBC) operates 18 schools in Haiti, educating and feeding more than 6,600 desperately poor children. It also operates the New Life Center Orphanage, a refuge for 82 children and teenagers, most of whom are considered economic orphans, meaning their parents either cannot afford to feed them and send them to school, or they live too far away to attend the school consistently.  CBC not only provides the education and the uniforms to these students, they also provide a daily meal.  To you and me that doesn’t sound so different from what we have, a hot lunch provided by the school.  But, if not for the feeding programs in the schools, most of the children would go uneducated.  You see, their parents need them to stay home and work to earn money to feed the family.  But if the children are fed at school then that is a big incentive for their parents to send them.  Food is so very expensive, and the poor earn so very little, that the meal these children eat at school is far more nutritious and filling than anything their parents could provide for them.  If not for this food, most of the children attending the schools would, at the very least, be out in the street working, and extremely malnourished.

        Another program your efforts will be supporting is the Vita Food program.  Vita Food is a nutritionally balanced food product specifically developed for malnourished and starving children. It’s a combination of carbohydrates, protein, fat and fiber and includes 25 essential vitamins and minerals sealed in an airtight packet. Vita Food is generously donated to Cross International by ‘Feed My Starving Children Ministries’ and hand-packed by their dedicated and hard-working volunteers. Cross has been offered an unlimited supply of Vita Food, but we need the funds to ship it to starving people around the world.  The cost to ship a container of Vita Food to Haiti is approximately $7,900. A 40 ft. container of Vita Food goes a long way to feed the hungry! Each container can hold 45,144 packets. That’s enough Vita Food to provide 270,864 meals for malnourished children!  School feeding programs in countries like Haiti are often the only way a hungry child gets a nutritious meal. If they miss school — they don’t eat. Without proper nutrition children suffer the affects of malnourishment including stunted growth, distended bellies, orange hair, lethargy and slower mental and motor skills.

Malnourishment also makes them prone to illness and disease. Their chances of reaching adulthood grow slimmer the longer their bodies are deprived of the vital nutrients they need. 

        “When we ask a ministry what their needs are... food is almost always at the top of their list,” said Cross International President Jim Cavnar. “To this day, food is the most requested item we get. It seems there is always a demand for food... just as there is always a hungry child.”

        The Haitian Health Foundation (HHF) is a grassroots, humanitarian organization. They serve 200,000 people, the poorest of the poor, in Jeremie and 104 mountain villages in rural Southern Haiti. HHF has been providing health care for almost 25 years, focusing on malnourished children and prenatal women. HHF also provides outpatient medical, dental, and eye care, with an emphasis on child survival and maternal health.

        HHF has built a 7,000 square foot Outpatient Clinic, a Nutritional Rehabilitation Facility for severely malnourished children, and a Maternal Waiting Home for village women in high-risk pregnancies. Supported by hundreds of visiting volunteers, their staff of 154 employees is primarily Haitian.

        In addition, HHF has various development and self-help programs, including animal distribution, housing rehabilitation, latrine construction and an active family sponsorship program which provides support for the neediest families as well as schooling for their children. A feeding pavilion provides weight and health monitoring, preventive health care, nutritional education, meals, and take-home food for hundreds of malnourished children and prenatal women each week.