Feeding the Hungry

Our kitchen never rests. Our neighborhood “street boys” regularly use the Apparent Project house as a second home to get out of the heat or the rain, find something to eat, and just relax and hang out. Depending on the need in our neighborhood we also occasionally host larger meals for other hungry children or supply meal ingredients for families on a temporary emergency relief basis. We have our own chicken coop that supplies a few hundred eggs a month, providing crucial proteins for those in desperate need.

Aside from neighborhood teens and children, the Apparent Project artisan house feeds our artisans and their kids a daily Haitian lunch. We estimate that we prepare an average of 400 plates of food a week! The high costs are well worth it as we see the overall health and appearance of the people in our programs change. It's amazing how many medical issues decrease significantly with regular nutrition.

We are sensitive to the fact that free food can put local merchants out of business and counteract work intiative, so we take great care to feed where the need is most desperate and where it won't create unhealthy dependencies or undermine the local economy. Still, feeding is one of the largest pressures on our budget. Despite the myth of cheap goods in impoverished nations, the truth is that more than 90% of Haiti's food is imported, much of it bought at retail prices from the U.S. before being shipped and resold here. The costs are comparable to Hawaii prices. We pay $8 for a gallon of milk, $5 for a small 8 oz block of cheese, and at least $6 for a box of cereal. We no longer drink fresh milk! If you know of agencies that support feeding programs such as ours, please put us in contact. Also, please consider making a regular monthly donation to the Apparent Project to help us feed the hungry. Thanks!