(Jamaica Gleaner) Ferdinand ‘Ferdy’ Mahfood, founder of Food For The Poor, died peacefully on Sunday, surrounded by his family in prayer. He was 85.
“Our family, while we mourn the passing of Ferdy, we rejoice in his life and his founding of Food For The Poor, which has benefitted hundreds of thousands of recipients in the Caribbean and Latin America. Ferdy is now right where he always wanted to be, with our Lord God in Heaven,” the family said in a statement.
Mahfood established Food For The Poor in Florida on February 12, 1982. The organisation initially sent resources to Jamaica, where he had observed firsthand the plight of people suffering from poverty, disease and the impact of natural disasters.
“Mahfood heard God’s call when he witnessed extreme poverty in his native homeland of Jamaica. His religious conversion in 1976 was the inspiration behind the founding of Food For The Poor, with the love and support of his family, planting the seeds of love and devotion 41 years ago that will know no end,” the charity organisation said in a news release.
Mahfood once explained what was going through his mind that was the catalyst for the birth of the charity.
“This is not about any one of us,” said Mahfood, a devout Catholic. “This is about God. And Food For The Poor is an answer to God.”
Food For The Poor President/CEO Ed Raine expressed his profound sadness over the loss of Mahfood and said he leaves behind a legacy of love and compassion for the poor.
“He planted the seeds when he answered God’s call,” Raine said. “We are honored to continue following this call more than 40 years later.”
Raine said every time Mahfood went into a slum or a home or prison, the first thing he did was to look into the eyes of those he was visiting.
“Ferdy would say ‘It wasn’t poor people. It was God,’ and this makes what we are doing a divine mission,” Raine said.
As the charity expanded, Ferdy and his wife, Patty, traveled throughout the Caribbean, bringing resources to countless people in need.
FFTP officially launched its operation in Jamaica in June 1983 and created a model that the organisation would later replicate in other parts of the Caribbean and Latin America.
“Mahfood’s goal for the families and children served by the charity was that they break free from the cycle of poverty. He believed that education and self-help must fortify charity work to make a true difference,” said the organisation.
“To this end, Food For The Poor began to support programmes that taught recipients how to raise livestock and develop small businesses; it also provided agricultural assistance to independent farmers throughout the 1980s. That work with farmers continues today.”
In an interview with The Jamaica Gleaner in 2012, Mahfood said there was no way he could have foretold Food For The Poor’s success.
“I never dreamt it would have become what it is today,” he said. “Not in my wildest imagination would I have believed that it would come to this … culminating in today.”
In the article, Mahfood quickly cleared up any misconception that it was all about him.
“The organisation was started by four brothers – Sam, Joe, Robin and myself,” he said. “So it’s not just Ferdinand Mahfood’s efforts, it’s the efforts of the four brothers and all their children, and that is what has built it, and kept it together.”
Food For The Poor said it will announce in the near future how the charity will honour his memory.
