Our goal is to make sure that every orphan receives at least one nutritious meal per day.

Food for Orphans provides food for orphans that truly need help. That means we fund feeding programs in mostly poor third-world countries. We seek out those orphan care programs that exhibit the ability and history to care effectively for the needs of orphans, yet struggle to provide the necessary food.

From the orphan care providers, we require financial accountability, monthly reports, updates on the condition of the orphans, and unlimited access to the project. Food for Orphans is currently feeding orphans in Asia, Africa, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.

Most of the donations to Food for Orphans goes to actually feed orphans. A small portion of donations must be used for the necessary operating expenses, insuring that Food for Orphans will be able to continue feeding millions of orphans. We also train the orphan caregivers on diet and nutrition.

In 2010, 92% of all donations went to Program Services, 4% went to administration, and 4% was used for fundraising.

View Where Food for Orphans has fed orphans in a larger map

You can learn more by going to http://www.FoodPackingEvent.com.

Food for Orphans is now conducting exciting food-packing events at churches, schools, and businesses. Hundreds of volunteers can serve together in two hour shifts packaging simple, nutritious meals that will be shipped to hungry orphans.

These life-sustaining meals of rice, soy protein, freeze-dried vegetables, and 21 vitamins and minerals targeted to help the immune system of malnourished children, are measured into bags, sealed, boxed, and prepared for shipment at our events.

How We Are Different:

At less than 25 cents per meal, the ingredients, packaging, administration, and international shipping are all covered. That means that the cost of shipping the food to the orphans is included! The meals are delivered to a specific orphan project and you’ll know exactly where the food is going.

Event partners like corporations, schools, churches and civic groups raise the money for the food (or the volunteers donate), secure an event location and recruit volunteers to participate in the packaging. All ages can participate in this fun, unifying experience, building teamwork, and developing leadership skills. It is a life-changing event for all involved.

Food for Orphans is committed to guiding you in all facets by providing tips, ideas and tools to help your group reach its goals. And we can conduct a fun-filled food packing event with as few as 200 volunteer participants.

To learn more about how your group can participate just write us, call toll-free 888-219-0779, or email us at info@foodfororphans.org. You can also view and print a brochure by clicking the link below.

ENDORSEMENTS

"Gary Van Dyke has become a good friend over the past five years, he and Food for Orphans are called to feed the orphan.
Our packing event was in June of this year, and we had about 300 people. The event packaged over 50,000 meals. It was a great success and I would not hesitate to recommend Gary and his organization."  Pastor David Arruda

New Life Church recently partnered with Food for Orphans and conducted a church-wide food packing event. We had over 1000 volunteers participate in the event and every one of them, from age 5 to 85, had a wonderful time packing food to send to orphans.  As a church, we appreciated the impact the event had on our members as they learned about the packing process and the orphans that would be receiving the food.
It was so successful that we plan on doing another event next year and also raise the amount we want to pack and send.  Pastor Riaan Heyns

Courtesy of WSIL-TV ABC in Southern Illinois    

Food for Orphans wants to do an ANTI-HUNGER RUN at your favorite school ... and we will pay them to let us do it.

The school only has to promote the event and let us use their track or field ... and we will donate 50% of the net proceeds back to the school ... up to $50,000!!

 HERE IS HOW IT'S DONE

The school announces the Anti-Hunger Run to the student body. Students sign up as TEAM CAPTAINS and each finds 2 other runners to form their TEAM to run around the track as many times as they can in ONE HOUR. Each runner provides a short mailing list of potential sponsors (sponsors agree to donate only $1 per lap). We anticipate that each runner will run 20 laps in one hour.

The school will then receive a donation for 50% of the net proceeds ... up to $50,000!

An Anti-Hunger Run works for Elementary, Middle, or High Schools. The best thing is ... FOOD FOR ORPHANS will do the work. The school pays NOTHING!

Dates are filling up fast, so contact Food for Orphans TODAY and get your school a big FAT donation!

  Food for Orphans new program, the OmegaChild Project, seeks out families in the US that have adopted an orphan and offers them a monthly stipend to help with the costs of feeding the adopted orphan. If you know of such a family, click on the Contact Us link below and let us know. We will contact them and offer to include them in The OmegaChild Project.

Here in the USA, orphans are usually placed in the Foster Care Program and the government pays people to care for them. That payment is used for the care and feeding of the foster child. The 2005 Federal budget projection for Title IV-E Foster Care mandatory spending was $4.9 billion for the foster care program.

The federal and state governments also give away free food in the WICS program, free food stamps, free health care, free education, free school breakfast and lunch, free clothing, free housing assistance, free job placement assistance, and other free benefits. You, as a taxpayer, are already providing help to orphans in the US just by paying your taxes. Food for Orphans is grateful that all orphans in the US have these benefits available to them.

The orphans that Food for Orphans feeds overseas, receive little-to-no assistance from any government. They have to find their next meal on their own, or help their caregiver with finding food. That might mean scavenging though trash cans or the city dump. Some of the orphans we've met only eat once every 2 or 3 days. And most of those orphans are under 9 years old.

The Problem
The statistics about orphans in the US Foster Care System are shocking.
•    There are more than half a million children and youth in the U.S. foster care system, a 90% increase since 1987.
•    Three of 10 of the nation’s homeless are former foster children.
•    80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system.
•    Foster children are three to six times more likely to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems, including conduct disorders, depression, difficulties in school and impaired social relationships.

A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster care:
•    27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated.
•    33% were receiving public assistance.
•    37% had not finished high school.
•    50% were unemployed.

The Solution
Adoption is the answer to the obvious problem of leaving children in the foster program.
Churches and churchgoers have a natural inclination to care for orphans, as the Bible is full of God’s instructions to do so. One of the greatest areas of neglect has been with the orphans here in the USA. Most orphans in the USA are placed in the foster care program and live with a foster family. This is better than an orphanage, but it leaves the orphan with a feeling of hopelessness, a lack of an emotional connection, and the absence of the feeling that they are loved. Only being invited into a family on a permanent basis and being adopted will change that.

The OmegaChild Project is designed to provide churches with the tools they need to encourage their members and their community to adopt the children in their state’s foster care program. We will provide the churches with instruction, seminars, education, training, encouragement, and resources. To the adopting family, we will provide substantial funding to assist in covering some of the immense costs associated with adoption.

As churches fulfill their  mission, and families welcome an orphaned child into their family, the state can expect that the child will be better trained and socialized, and likely to be a more responsible adult. The child receives a new life in a real home with a real family they can call their own.

Since Food for Orphans recognizes that there are tremendous expenses in adopting and raising a child, and that some families are delaying or even cancelling adoption because of this expense, Food for Orphans created the OmegaChild Project in an effort to encourage the adoption of orphans here in the USA. In an effort to promote adoption of US orphans, the OmegaChild Project proposes to provide a limited monthly stipend to help defray the costs of feeding the adoptive child. This stipend is offered without regard to the adoptive child or the adoptive family’s race, nationality, religion, or economic status. Food for Orphans asked for nothing from the family in return.

Current Funding
Currently, The OmegaChild Project is funded entirely by Food for Orphans.

Future Funding
The majority of future funding will come from churches and foundation grants.

Geographical Area Served
The OmegaChild Project will promote the adoption of orphans placed in the foster care system in every state across the USA. 

The United Nations estimates the population of street children, ranging in age from three to eighteen, at 150 million worldwide with the number rising daily. A conservative estimate is that there might be 30 million homeless orphans worldwide, a number unprecedented in the history of civilization.

Back in the days of the Depression, many people were out of work and homeless, and were called Hobo's. Sometimes a hobo would go up to a door of a house and knock. When the lady-of-the-house answered, he might say, "Ma'am, I haven't eaten in a couple of days and I was wondering if I could do some work for you in exchange for some food."

The woman would answer "Sure, just come around to the back door." When he got there, she would give him a plate of food to eat. After he ate his Back Door Dinner, he would cut the grass, chop wood, or whatever else work needed to be done.

This is a tremendous outreach to these children who do not experience "Love-in-Action". The ability to share with homeless orphans is appreciated by the children and the orphan care giver alike and is one of the most powerful programs in which Food for Orphans is involved. Your generous donation will help Food for Orphans continue to help feed homeless orphans, and demonstrating love, wherever we can find them.

 To learn more, visit our CORPORATIONS page.

Hunger is the body's way of signaling that it is running short of food and needs to eat something. It can lead to malnutrition, which greatly weakens the body’s immune system. This can lead to many fatal diseases including diarrhea, malaria, HIV/AIDS, measles, tuberculosis, and many others. Orphans are particularly vulnerable to the devastating effects associated with hunger and malnutrition.

In many cultures, certain foods are consumed that make the child feel less hungry, yet do not provide any healthy nourishment. Food for Orphans is dedicated to eradicating hunger in orphans by providing healthy meals and offers this information to help you understand the significant danger of malnutrition and hunger.

    * More than 300 million children are undernourished in today's world. These children are more likely to contract diseases and infections, and can suffer severe damage to their mental and physical development that is irreparable.
    * 854 million people do not have enough to eat - more than the populations of USA, Canada and the European Union. Source: FAO & The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2003
    * Hunger & malnutrition are the #1 risk to global health killing more people than AIDS, malaria & TB combined. Source: WHO-World Health Report 2002 - WHO 2003
    * Every five seconds a child dies because she or he was hungry. Source: FAO State of Food Insecurity in the World 2003
    * Everyone needs 2,350 calories each day. 54 nations do not produce enough to feed their people. Source: FAO-Mapping of the Food Supply Gap 1998;
    * The average daily expenditure on food in the developed world is US$10. A Food for Orphans meal costs 42 cents/day.
    * Animal lovers in the United States and Europe spend more than $13 billion a year on pet food each year.
    * 50% of South African children go to bed hungry. Source: Afrol News Service
    * Hunger and poverty claim 25,000 lives every day. Source: FAO & The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2006
    * 820 million people in developing countries alone are hungry - one in four lives in sub-Saharan Africa. Source: FAO & The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2006
    * 524 million of the world's hungry live in South Asia - more than the populations of Australia and USA. Source: FAO & The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2006
    * More than 60 percent of chronically hungry people are women. Source: FAO & The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2006
    * The number of chronically hungry people worldwide is growing by an average of four million per year at current trends. Source: FAO & The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2006
    * Hunger is more than having an empty stomach. Hunger means not getting the necessary daily nutrition to lead a fully active, productive and healthy life.

CHILD HUNGER

    * Every five seconds a child dies because she or he is hungry. Source: FAO State of Food Insecurity in the World 2006
    * Malnutrition in children under the age 18 affects an estimated 350 to 400 million children.
      Source: Global Framework for Action, 2006
    * More than 70 percent of the world's 146 million underweight children under age five years live in just 10 countries, with more than 50 per cent located in South Asia alone. Source: Progress for Children: A Report Card on Nutrition (No.4), UNICEF, May 2006
    * 10.9 million children under five die in developing countries each year. Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause 60 percent of the deaths. Source: UNICEF
    * One out of every four children - roughly 146 million - in developing countries is underweight. Source: The State of the World's Children 2007, UNICEF
    * It is estimated that 684,000 lives child deaths worldwide could be prevented by increasing access to vitamin A and zinc. Source: WFP Annual Report 2007
    * Almost five million children die each year from preventable diseases such as diarrhea and measles every year. Source: WFP Hunger Facts 2006
    * Lack of Vitamin A kills a million infants a year. Source: Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency, A Global Progress Report, UNICEF
    * Iron deficiency is the most common form of malnutrition, affecting 180 million children aged under four. Source: WFP Facts and Figures on Child Hunger
    * Iron deficiency is impairing the mental development of 40-60 percent children in developing countries. Source: Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency, A Global Progress Report, p2, UNICEF
    * Lack of vitamin A weakens the immune system of 40 percent of under fives in poor countries, and can cause blindness. Source: Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency, A Global Progress Report, p2, UNICEF - WFP Facts and Figures on Child Hunger, p2
    * Iodine deficiency is the main cause of brain damage in the early years of a child's life. Source: WFP Facts and Figures on Child Hunger, p2

FOOD AID & HIV / AIDS

    * Every minute, a child under 15 dies of an AIDS-related illness. Every minute, another child becomes HIV-positive. Source: WFP HIV/AIDS unit, 2007
    * HIV/AIDS directly impacts a person's ability to provide enough food to feed themselves or their families, directly compromising their household's food security. Source: WFP HIV/AIDS unit, 2007
    * Less than one in five people at risk of becoming infected with HIV world wide have access to basic prevention services. Source: WFP HIV/AIDS unit, 2007
    * WFP and UNAIDS estimate that it costs an average of US$0.66 per day to provided nutritional support to an AIDS patient and his/her family. Source: WFP HIV/AIDS unit, 2007
    * Children with HIV/AIDS may face as a result: poverty, malnutrition, inadequate access to social services, discrimination, stigmatization, gender inequality and sexual exploitation. Source: WFP HIV/AIDS unit, 2007

(Some information taken from UNICEF and The Children on the Brink Report)

Frequently Asked Questions on World Hunger from the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

1. What is chronic hunger?
People who are chronically hungry are undernourished. They don’t eat enough to get the energy they need to lead active lives. Their undernourishment makes it hard to study, work or otherwise perform physical activities. Undernourishment is particularly harmful for women and children. Undernourished children do not grow as quickly as healthy children. Mentally, they may develop more slowly. Constant hunger weakens the immune system and makes them more vulnerable to diseases and infections. Mothers living with constant hunger often give birth to underweight and weak babies, and are themselves facing increased risk of death.

Every day, millions of people around the world eat only the bare minimum of food to keep themselves alive. Every night, they go to bed not certain whether there will be enough food to eat tomorrow. This uncertainty about where the next meal will come from is called ‘food insecurity’. FAO defines food insecurity as: “A situation that exists when people lack secure access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life.”

2. Who is most at risk of hunger?
Three main groups are most at risk of hunger: the rural poor, the urban poor, and victims of catastrophes.

The rural poor
The majority of the people who don’t have enough to eat live in poor, rural communities in developing countries. Many have no electricity and no safe drinking water. Public health, education and sanitation services are often of low quality. The world’s most food-insecure and hungry people are often directly involved in producing food. They cultivate crops on small plots of land. They raise animals. They catch fish. They do what they can to provide food for their families or earn money at the local produce market. Many have no land of their own and work as hired hands to earn enough money to get by. Often the work is seasonal, and the family must move or split up to earn a living. It is hard work and it is difficult to set anything aside in case of an emergency. Even when there is enough food, the threat of hunger is always present.

The urban poor
The urban poor constitute another group that is at risk of hunger. They produce little or no food and frequently lack the means to buy food. Cities are expanding constantly. In the year 2000, nearly two billion people lived in cities; by 2030, this figure will have more than doubled. As the cities expand, and as more people will migrate from rural to urban areas, the number of the urban poor will rise. Urban hunger and access to affordable food in cities will therefore be increasingly important issues.

Victims of catastrophes
Every year floods, droughts, earthquakes and other natural disasters as well as armed conflicts cause widespread destruction and force families to abandon their homes and farms. Victims of catastrophes are often faced with the threat not just of hunger but of outright starvation. (FFO: Orphans have also suffered the catastrophe of losing at least one of their parents. This usually places them in a precarious life-threatening position where hunger is the most common and immediate problem they face.)

3. Where do the hungry live?
The majority of the hungry live in developing countries, but hunger also occurs in the industrialized world. Asia and the Pacific is home to the largest number of hungry while sub-Saharan Africa has the highest prevalence of hungry, with one in three people being undernourished.

Here is how the numbers break down (2010 values);

Sub-Saharan Africa: 239 million
Asia and the Pacific: 578 million
Latin America and the Caribbean: 53 million
Near East and North Africa: 37 million
Developed countries: 19 million

4. How does FAO measure hunger?
FAO measures hunger as the number of people who do not consume the minimum daily energy requirement, which is the amount of calories needed for light activity and a minimum acceptable weight for attained height. This varies by sex and age, not surprisingly. To calculate these numbers, FAO first collects three sets of data:

Data on production, imports and exports of all food commodities, along with the calorie content of each food. These data are used to calculate total availability of calories in the country.
Data on population structure in terms of age and sex, since different age and sex groups have different minimum caloric requirements. Using these data, one can estimate the total caloric requirements for the entire population as an aggregate. This varies from country to country because of different population structures.
Household survey data. These are used to estimate the country-specific distribution of calories. Some countries may have more equal distributions of calories than other countries, which, other things being equal, would lead to fewer people being undernourished. A log normal distribution of caloric intake is assumed.
From the total calories available, total calories needed for a given population, and the distribution of calories, one can calculate the number of people who are below the minimum energy requirement, and this is the number of undernourished people. This number is then summed for all countries in the world. Thus, no account is taken of protein, vitamin or mineral intake.

To come up with the most recent hunger figures, FAO uses USDA model estimates of the impact of current economic conditions on hunger, including the impact of changes in capital flows, exports and commodity prices on the ability of countries to purchase food.

5. How is the fight against hunger doing?
FAO hunger statistics go back to the period 1969-1971, when 878 million people were recorded as hungry. Earlier statistics are based on a different methodology and are thus not comparable. Over the past 40 years, the number of hungry people remained above 800 million. After some successes in reducing world hunger, undernourishment increased continuously between 1995-1997 and 2009, with a significant spike in 2009 following the economic and financial crisis. 

6. How can hunger be reduced?
The world currently produces enough food for everybody, but many people do not have access to it. There is ample evidence that rapid progress to reduce hunger can be made by applying a twin-track strategy that tackles both the causes and the consequences of extreme poverty and hunger. Track one includes interventions to improve food availability and incomes of the poor by enhancing their productive activities. Track two features targeted programs that give the most needy families direct and immediate access to food.

Simultanenously, a global food system needs better governance at national and international level. In food insecure countries, institutions are needed based on the principles of the Right to Adequate Food. These should promote transparency and accountability, the empowerment of the poor and their participation in the decisions that affect them.

http://www.fao.org/

Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children,
who faint from hunger at the head of every street.
Lamentations 2:19 (NIV)

James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Exodus 22:22
Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan.

Deuteronomy 10:18
He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.

Deuteronomy 14:29
So that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

Deuteronomy 16:11
And rejoice before the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name-you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, the Levites in your towns, and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you.

Deuteronomy 16:14
Be joyful at your Feast-you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns.

Deuteronomy 24:17
Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.

Deuteronomy 24:19
When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

Deuteronomy 24:20
When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow.

Deuteronomy 24:21
When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow.

Deuteronomy 26:12
When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.

Deuteronomy 26:13
Then say to the LORD your God: "I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow, according to all you commanded. I have not turned aside from your commands nor have I forgotten any of them.

Deuteronomy 27:19
"Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless or the widow." Then all the people shall say, "Amen!"

Job 22:9
And you sent widows away empty-handed and broke the strength of the fatherless.

Job 24:3
They drive away the orphan's donkey and take the widow's ox in pledge.

Job 24:9
The fatherless child is snatched from the breast; the infant of the poor is seized for a debt.

Job 29:12
Because I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist him.

Job 31:17
If I have kept my bread to myself, not sharing it with the fatherless-

Job 31:21
If I have raised my hand against the fatherless, knowing that I had influence in court,

Psalm 10:14
But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.

Psalm 10:18
Defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.

Psalm 68:5
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.

Psalm 82:3
Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.

Psalm 146:9
The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

Proverbs 23:10
Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,

Isaiah 1:17
learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

Isaiah 1:23
Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow's case does not come before them.

Jeremiah 7:6
if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm,

Jeremiah 22:3
This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.

Jeremiah 49:11
Leave your orphans; I will protect their lives. Your widows too can trust in me."

Ezekiel 22:7
In you they have treated father and mother with contempt; in you they have oppressed the alien and mistreated the fatherless and the widow.

Zechariah 7:10
Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.'

Malachi 3:5
"So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me," says the LORD Almighty.

John 14:18
I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.