Feed The Children, Inc. - Beginnings

Beginnings

Feed The Children (FTC) grew out of an Oklahoma City-based Christian organization called Larry Jones International Ministries. Jones, an evangelical minister since 1964, had over the years become well known through appearances on religious television programs. The inspiration for FTC came in January 1979, when he was in Port-au-Prince, Haiti to speak at a church. One night, as he was walking back to his hotel following a sermon, a small boy named Jerry approached him, arm outstretched, and asked for a nickel. Jones gave it to him, then paused to ask what he needed it for. The boy said that the nickel would buy him a roll to eat, and another three cents would let him buy butter to put on it. Jones then asked what it would cost for a Coke to wash it down, and gave the boy 20 cents for everything. When he discovered that this was Jerry's only meal of the day, Jones remembered a verse of scripture, "I was hungry and you gave me food" (Matthew 25:35), which he used as the basis for his next sermon.

After he returned to Oklahoma, the plight of the poor in Haiti, and the boy Jerry in particular, kept coming back to his mind. Jones decided to do some research, and soon found out that the U.S. government had a surplus of 35 million metric tons of wheat stored in grain elevators. Along with his wife Frances, he began to appeal to groups wherever he spoke, and on television, to donate money to feed the people of Haiti. Although he had not specifically asked for donations of wheat, farmers offered to give him 50 truckloads of it.

Not sure how to get it to its destination, Jones soon found a volunteer willing to drive the wheat to the shipyard, and another who donated and set up grinding equipment in Haiti. With this success Jones decided to build an organization that he called Feed The Children, which branched out to offer aid to the hungry in Africa as well. In 1981 an office was also opened in El Salvador, and the organization began to offer child sponsorships.

The early 1980s saw FTC offer assistance in the wake of several humanitarian crises around the world, helping famine victims in Ethiopia with food, as well as citizens of Romania with medical needs after the fall of that country's dictator. In 1984 the organization received a prestigious DOVE award for humanitarian work.