Teaching people to fish, and giving them fish at the same time

BY MICHAEL THOMAS

Who knew that when he left Jamaica in the ’70s, he would return and create a legacy for himself that will be spoken of for the ages Ferdinand Mahfood is a man responsible for feeding and housing thousands of people throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Even after he migrated to the U.S, he still wanted to do something for the people in Jamaica because he knew the socio-economic issues that many faced. He decided to connect with the churches so that those who had could help those who needed.

Today his organization has grown and involves helping the needy not only in Jamaica but throughout the Caribbean and Latin America as well. Food For Poor Canada helps with food, housing, education, livelihood, and feeds around 500,000 people each day. They have built more than 10,000 homes and are in the process of working on an early childhood project in Jamaica, which is proposed to build around 120 schools across the island, as well as helping support the government mandate to improve childhood education.

Eleven years ago, Mahfood’s niece Samantha reached out to her uncle asking if she could bring the organization branch to Canada; he agreed, and she has been working ever since as the Executive Director of the organization building awareness and raising funds to get the work done. Mahfood said it was hard work in the beginning, “For seven years I did it all by myself from going to the diaspora events, educational events, doing the budgets, helping those who wanted to donate food with shipping, the taxes, fundraising, and one on one networking. Once you get the funds, you have to focus on what to do with it, so I decided to build homes and schools in Jamaica.”

She said as time went by, it has gotten a bit easier. “We don’t have to go to people as much now they come to us; we do around 4,000 containers per-year internationally, and about a quarter of that goes to Haiti. A lot goes to Guatemala, and Jamaica gets about 5-800 containers depending on the year. The rest is spread out in the region that we service.”

“These containers contain: food, medicine, educational supplies, and building supplies,” Mahfood told Toronto Caribbean Newspaper, “One of the things I have been able to do over the last few years is establishing a really strong executive board, because without a strong board giving directions, raising funds, and giving good governance it’s really like a ship without direction.” These days Mahfood’s work has scaled back, and she now has taken on a more managerial role, which includes mostly administration, human resources, and hiring the right people. When asked by Toronto Caribbean Newspaper if the organization plans to go worldwide? She answered, “No! People should do what they do well, and there are others doing that already. We are concentrating on the Caribbean and Latin America.”

As to what she loves about Food For The Poor Canada? “It gives Canadians the opportunity to work with such a great organization that is doing such great work for Canada and that is (Brawta, aka adding more) because it takes a village to build a village. Everybody that works here does it for the passion they have about giving back. Nobody is there to make a lot of money because you don’t in the charitable industry; you are doing it because you know that it is benefiting other people, and that is a gift in itself. We are teaching them to fish, but giving them a fish at the same time.”

For anyone wanting to join Food For The Poor Canada, Mahfood advises that they take a look at the website foodforthepoor.ca. “There are so many different ways you can get involved: you can help build a school, build a well, you can help feed the poor, the work is endless.” As the Executive Director of the organization, Mahfood thanks all the volunteers and sponsors who give of their time, talents and treasures. In May, the organization honored their donors and partners, and The Globe and Mail who has given free advertisement to them for the last decade. At the event, CEO and Publisher Philip Crawley received the honor on behalf of the paper.

When she hears stories about young people who have received scholarships or have been helped by the work that is done by the organization, it is when she truly understands the significance of what her uncle started.