Feed The Children, Inc. - Abandoned Baby Center Opening in Kenya in 2001
Abandoned Baby Center Opening in Kenya in 2001
Once again moving beyond the controversy, in August 2001 FTC opened its first Abandoned Baby Center in Nairobi, Kenya, to provide a home for babies and toddlers left homeless by the AIDS epidemic. On September 11, 2001, following the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Jones (who happened to be in New York City that fateful morning) provided relief for survivors as he had during the Oklahoma City bombing. A few months later, after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, FTC supplied food, blankets, tents, and sleeping bags to citizens of that country who were living in refugee camps.
In 2003 FTC launched a partnership with the National Basketball Association Players Association, in which players would participate in food distribution events. Also during the year, the organization received the largest donation of powdered milk ever given by the U.S. government, and purchased a distribution warehouse in Elkhart, Indiana, which was FTC's fifth such facility, along with others in Oklahoma, Tennessee, California, and New Jersey. In addition to warehouse space, it would house administrative offices and a nutrition research center, and generate at least 100 jobs. The building had been sold to FTC for $1 by Bayer Diagnostics.
During the 2003 fiscal year, FTC distributed 54 million pounds of food and 15 million pounds of other items to agencies in all 50 U.S. states, in both urban and rural environments. Subsidiary FTC Transportation operated 55 semi tractor-trailers to distribute goods around the country. FTC now operated field offices in more than a dozen foreign countries including Romania, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Thailand, Japan, El Salvador, Haiti, and Nicaragua. During the year they distributed more than 14 million pounds of food and other supplies to children and families in 62 countries. FTC's medical teams treated almost 46,000 patients in medical, eye, and dental clinics, and dispensed more than 58,000 prescriptions for medicine and eyeglasses. Other FTC activities abroad over the years, which had reached a total of 109 countries, included constructing fish hatcheries, protecting fish breeding grounds, building model farms and agricultural training centers, establishing micro-loan programs, and initiating water sanitation projects.
Working with many major corporations, in 2003 FTC received donations of more than $480 million worth of surplus food, medicine, clothing, and other goods. An additional $80 million came in the form of cash, which when added to more than $11 million in other donations totaled more than $575 million in funding. FTC gave out $333 million worth of childcare, food, and medical services, $5.4 million in disaster relief, and $165.5 million in education and community development. An additional $52.1 million was spent on fundraising, along with $15.1 million that went to administration and general overhead. A total of 88 percent of expenditures went to program services, according to FTC.
In 2004 the organization's work continued with distribution of care boxes and food to soldiers in Iraq, in the wake of the U.S. war that drove Saddam Hussein from power. Families of soldiers in the United States also were offered assistance.
After a quarter-century in operation, Feed The Children, Inc. had grown into the 19th largest charity in the United States, supplying some of the world's neediest and most vulnerable citizens with food, medical care, and other basic necessities. Despite several controversies, the organization's donations and assistance continued to increase each year.
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