The sounds of school bells ringing and children chatting away as they hurry off to class soon will be returning to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It's been 17 months since a massive 7.0 magnitude quake tore apart the earth there, destroying everything and everyone near its epicenter, including 80 percent of the schools.

An artist's rendition of what the Jean Marie Guilloux school will look like.

In May, the ground shook again, but this time it was from the use of heavy machinery clearing sites for schools. Food For The Poor is building the Jean Marie Guilloux primary and secondary school, the first of four schools slated to go up in and around Haiti's capital.

The two-level building will have a total of 16 rooms including, six classrooms, an administrative office, and a canteen on the first level. Six more classrooms, a library with a computer lab, plus a music room will make up the second level. Each classroom will accommodate 40 students and a teacher. All of the new schools will have a walkway with a canopy and stairway, along with a water well and septic system. FULL POST

When Food For The Poor first began its work in Haiti, the organization was responding to a cry for help for those living in subhuman conditions in the country's largest and most dangerous slum, Cite Soleil located in the capital of Port-au-Prince. Five containers of rice were delivered in 1982 to prevent families from starving. By 1986, when Food For The Poor was licensed to work in Haiti, the charity delivered $4.1 million in aid.

Since then, the relief and development work has not ceased. The long tenure of Food For The Poor in Haiti made it possible to respond quickly and efficiently last year when the country was faced with the double challenge of a devastating earthquake and an outbreak of cholera. In 2010, Food For The Poor shipped 205 containers of goods worth $188 million to Haiti.

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Thanks to the continued support of Food For The Poor donors, the third-largest international relief and development agency in the United States will celebrate two decades of service to Guyana's poor on Friday, June 3. Food For The Poor began working in Guyana in 1991, delivering food and other basic items to Guyana's poor.

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Joe Roetheli and Robin Mahfood with one of the 65 families that received a new home.

Since then, the Florida-based nonprofit has expanded its services in Guyana to meet the growing needs of the country's impoverished residents. Inflation and a high unemployment rate create a daily struggle to survive for Guyana's poor.

"Few people are aware of the tremendous poverty that exists in Guyana, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere," said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. "I would like to thank Food For The Poor-Guyana's staff for working diligently and efficiently to ease the plight of Guyana's poor – one person, one family at a time." FULL POST

For 13 years, Father Richard Martin, pastor of the Church of the Nativity in Burke, Va., has worked side by side with Food For The Poor to help transform the lives of hundreds of families who once lived in deplorable conditions in Haiti.

Ben Rusnak

Fr. Richard Martin addresses Food For The Poor employees.

On Friday, May 27, Fr. Martin presented Food For The Poor's CEO/President Robin Mahfood with another generous check. Nativity Parish's 2011 Lenten collection will be used to build 100 new homes in its seventh village. "Nativity Village in Mazere" will be located in Cap-Haitien.

"Food For The Poor has delivered aid and so much more to those who are desperate for help, and together we make a difference," said Fr. Martin, Church of the Nativity. "I want to thank all of you for being shepherds. All of you are caretakers and shepherds. What would Food For The Poor be without its shepherds?"

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Hoisted high in the air, 11-year-old Rachel Wheeler caught her first glimpse on Wednesday of the Food For The Poor village she worked for two years to build. From above the crowd, Rachel could see the rows of vibrantly painted pink, blue and green homes, nestled along the coast in Leogane, near the epicenter of the January 2010 earthquake. Villagers surrounded Rachel, clapping and singing songs of praise and thanks. One-by-one the residents embraced and kissed the young girl, who helped to move 27 families out of dilapidated shacks into permanent two-room homes.

"There's a lot of happy people there," said Rachel, who visited with several residents inside their homes. "It's nice and it's clean."

Her mother described "Rachel's Village" as unbelievable.

"This reception is overwhelming, and to look around and know these people have homes because of Rachel's efforts is just amazing, it really is, it is amazing. It's unbelievable," said Julie Wheeler. FULL POST

In their continuing effort to honor their daughter's legacy, Lenny and Lin Crispinelli will travel to Jamaica for a second time to follow in Stephanie's footsteps with Food For The Poor. In less than two days, the team of 33 friends and family members will build a school to serve children, like the ones that first inspired Stephanie's enthusiasm to "Do work" on a mission trip with the charity.

Stephanie Crispinelli, left, during a Jamaica mission trip.

One of the people making the trip, Nikki Fantauzzi, was with Stephanie in Haiti with a group from Lynn University on a Food For The Poor mission trip when the 7.0 magnitude earthquake instantly claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

Fantauzzi, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, drove four boxes of educational supplies from the Crispinelli's home in New York to Food For The Poor's headquarters in Coconut Creek, Fla. On Monday, May 23, before they left for Jamaica, the group stuffed backpacks for the children who attend Gimme-Me-Bit's school in Clarendon, Jamaica. FULL POST

Don Moen in Haiti.

Christian music artist Don Moen is sharing his talents with the international relief and development organization Food For The Poor so that homes can be built for those who have no shelter. His upcoming six-city Canadian tour will kick off on May 30.

This isn't the first time the artist has collaborated with the charity. In 2004, he traveled to Jamaica and was moved to partner on homebuilding. Then in 2010, after the earthquake in Haiti, he visited Port-au-Prince and an area in Cap-Haitien called Shada, and came back to the United States inspired to change lives.

To read more snf view the tour schedule, click here.

Performers in brightly colored, authentic lion costumes welcomed guests to the second annual Doral Overseas Chinese Business Chamber gala Saturday night. Event award recipients included Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of the international relief and development organization Food For The Poor, and Chinese-Jamaican businessman, Livingston 'George' Yap, CEO of LEASA Industries Co, Inc.

Mahfood and Yap were introduced as givers of second chances. Mahfood emphasized Food For The Poor's passion for giving as freely as the charity receives. The majority of LEASA's employees are former welfare recipients, high school dropouts and those who were once in the penal system.

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Desperate mothers like Janice Jerome are praying for a miracle. Earning only $3 a week, Janice can never scrape together enough money for a house that will keep her children safe. As hurricane season approaches, Janice and her family are in desperate need of a Food For The Poor house.

Haitian Janice Jerome and her daughter live in a shack.

Janice, 40, lives in Haiti and prays and trusts in the Lord. She and her extended family of 10 sleep in a cramped shelter made from a hodgepodge of materials. The front door is part of an abandoned car they found. Sheets make up the back wall and the roof is a flimsy tarp. When asked where the family's bathroom is, Janice silently points to some bushes on the hillside. The threat of disease is a constant worry.

The children sleep on the ground and when it rains at night, the whole family huddles together, soaked, praying for the rain to stop.

Janice and her family are not an isolated case. Thousands of families in the Caribbean and Latin America are trapped in the cycle of multi-generational poverty and dysfunctional economies. Housing is the first step toward breaking this cycle and putting local economies on solid ground. FULL POST

We've all heard that it's better to give than to receive, but every now and again an opportunity comes along where both parties – the giver and the receiver – benefit. Food For The Poor is gearing up for its second online auction.

Up for grabs is a stay at the 5-star Hotel Villa Rolandi Thalasso Spa-Gourmet & Beach Club in Isla Mujeres, Mexico.

Many of the items up for grabs range from elegant to eclectic, and will appeal to a wide variety of bidders. Private island getaways, concert tickets, celebrity and sports memorabilia, jewelry, works of art, and even an Apple iPad are some of the prizes heading to the online auction block May 23 through June 13.

To see the complete photo list of items up for auction visit www.foodforthepoor.org/auction. Once you find what you like, place your bid. You must be vigilant and check on your desired item(s) often because at the end of the auction on June 13, the prize will go to the highest bidder. FULL POST