The LDS Church will ship 6,750 food boxes and purchase 250 tons of grain to help feed the most desperate victims in three drought-stricken nations in southern Africa.
More than 200 volunteer church members gathered Tuesday night at the Bishop's Storehouse near downtown Salt Lake City to package the family-size food boxes, which are headed for Zimbabwe, Malawi and Madagascar, according to church humanitarian services director Garry Flake. Nonperishables including beans, rice, pasta, soup mix, vegetable oil, salt and soap were packaged in each box and will sustain one family for seven to 10 days, he said.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will also purchase 250 tons of cereal grains from countries bordering the drought-stricken region so immediate food relief can begin, Flake said.
In addition, four large containers of clothing will be sent to Malawi in response to a request from the U.S. ambassador to Malawi, who contacted the church and made the clothing request.
He declined to put a dollar value on the aid, saying the church prefers to discuss "volume and not dollars" in its relief efforts.
United Nations relief organizations operating in the affected countries reported Tuesday that many residents there are on the "brink of starvation," with the region facing its worst food shortages in a decade.
In addition to severe drought, economic instability, last year's flooding, already depleted food stocks and the epidemic spread of HIV/AIDS have combined to heighten the crisis.
United Nations World Food Program regional director Judith Lewis said after a survey of the area in recent weeks that food must start arriving in the next couple of months in the area to avert an "all-out disaster."
In a press release issued Tuesday, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP) warned that at least 10 million people are threatened in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Mozambique. It said "grave food shortages" will appear as early as June, which would continue up to the next main harvest, in April 2003.
The agencies predicted that over the next year nearly 4 million tons of food will be needed, and that almost 10 million people in the famine-threatened countries need 1.2 million tons of emergency food assistance immediately.
"We have reports from relief agencies that if crops in these countries fail again, the effects of starvation will be unimaginable," Flake said. "The descriptions of what this famine is doing to children is painful to hear."
He said the church had begun planning the relief shipments within the past week, and the shipments will go out on Friday. "With the ability we have to respond, and purchasing some goods in neighboring nations, we can respond as quickly as any organization can."
The food boxes going to Zimbabwe will be distributed through the church's own Latter-day Saint Charities, which has been registered with the government there, he said. In Malawi and Madagascar, the church is cooperating with government disaster agencies. "We have church volunteer couples and others that will help verify the distribution of goods to those most in need.
"We will follow up with government representatives, the U.N. and other countries and in nations where we are now to see what additional help may be needed down the line. This is a very timely response that we think will do a lot to help out."
The relief effort comes as Utahns are dealing with drought conditions of their own, and many other areas around the country also reporting dwindling water supplies.
E-mail: carrie@desnews.com