Venezuela Earthquake: Food For The Poor Responds

A massive earthquake can change a country in minutes, but the hardest part is what comes after: the waiting, the searching, the sudden need for food, water, medicine, and a safe place to sleep. We’re talking about the devastating Venezuela earthquakes and the scale that’s still coming into focus, from lives lost to thousands of buildings damaged or destroyed and millions of people caught in the impact zone.

Ed Raine, President & CEO of Food for the Poor, breaks down what disaster response looks like when the situation is still developing: verified updates, rapid decisions, and a phased plan that starts with emergency relief and stretches into shelter and long-term recovery.

Cesar Guevara, Director of Partnerships, shares his personal perspective on the disaster and talks about the outpouring of support coming from our local South Florida communities.

You can support Food For The Poor’s disaster respone efforts here:

foodforthepoor.org/helpvenezuela

Text VENEZUELA to 78077

Or shop our Amazon wishlist:

foodforthepoor.org/venezuelalist

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

This is a uh a a natural disaster of incredible proportions that is striking a country that was already struggling. It's an ongoing situation. There's many people that are still under the rubble. Now this is six, seven million people in harm's way.

SPEAKER_03 0:16

This is home.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

This is really deeply personal to you. Put yourself in the mindset of someone who's just lost everything.

SPEAKER_03 0:22

A lot of them have family members that they still haven't heard from.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

This uh earthquake really hit home inside of their hearts.

Welcome And Crisis Overview

SPEAKER_03 0:35

Welcome to Beyond the Plate, the podcast from Food for the Poor, where we share stories of hope, resilience, and the incredible work happening to serve vulnerable communities across Latin America and the Caribbean. Today we're talking about a heartbreaking tragedy that has just captured the world's attention, the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela. I'm joined by Food for the Poor president and CEO Ed Rain and Director of Partnerships Cesar Guevara, whose own roots in Venezuela make this crisis deeply personal. Ed,

The Scale Of The Damage

SPEAKER_03 1:11

for those who have only seen the headlines or a few images on social media, help us understand the magnitude of what's happened in Venezuela.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Well, I think first thing is I'm not sure that we know the full magnitude yet. This is definitely a developing uh situation. So as of this morning, the official counts have uh more than 1,900 uh people have lost their lives. Uh we're seeing estimates, you know, that range dramatically from 10,000 to maybe 60,000 people who are unaccounted for. But it's also really clear that the number of buildings that have been severely damaged or destroyed are uh almost unimaginable. Uh as many as 60,000 buildings. And so you just uh with that alone, you start to get your head around, all right, this could be um, you know, a situation that has long-term uh catastrophic uh impact uh for uh so many people. Uh because in that in the in the swath where these earthquakes sort of struck, six, seven million people live. So um it's not just about what happens today, it's about what happens, you know, in the upcoming months, weeks, years. I mean, it's just gonna be a a a situation that until we really know what actually has happened and the reports are are confirmed, we just have to assume that it's an order of magnitude larger than we've seen in the area in a long, long time.

SPEAKER_03 2:39

Right. Is that what struck you most about this disaster? Because obviously we're just coming out of responding from Melissa. We've seen a lot of disaster. But what struck you most about this one?

SPEAKER_01 2:48

I think just the scale of the building collapse and the fact that uh so many millions of people were in the way. In Jamaica, it was you know less than a about a million people were in in the harm's way. Now this is six, seven million people in the harm's way.

SPEAKER_03 3:03

Wow. We hear about all those numbers, but then we also know that César, you're you're from Venezuela.

A Call Home From Caracas

SPEAKER_03 3:11

This is home, this is really deeply personal to you. What went through your mind when you heard the news about the earthquakes?

SPEAKER_02 3:19

Well, first of all, it was a way that I heard the news. It was it was Javier Ramirez, a co-worker, the one that called me and said, Hey, there there was a an earthquake in Venezuela. So immediately I called my dad who is in Venezuela. Wow. And he was already outside of the house in the street because he he felt it strongly. Uh we live in La Boyera in Caracas, and uh he felt it very strongly. He's eighty-nine years old, so you can get out. The house uh suffered uh uh some damage, but very little damage, and it's it it is structurally sound. But uh it was yes, I did receive that call. It was it was scary. They were in shock. He was in shock, and he had to stay that night uh in the streets until about one or two in the morning because there were uh after shocks that were being felt uh in Caracas. Of course he was disconnected from the news, so I had to get my news from other sources, other people. Uh but it wasn't just about my dad, right? It was about uh families in Venezuela, my family in Venezuela, it was about friends, it was it was about many of the people that I grew up with. It was uh, you know, the greatest damage was in La Guayra, as you know, La Guayra is about 40 minutes away from my house, right? Is where people go to the beach during the weekends. As a matter of fact, uh when I was growing up, we had a we had a condo at the beach. That building crumbled under these uh earthquakes.

SPEAKER_03 4:44

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Uh but that's very personal to me, is where I spent many, many days, uh vacations with my family, so it's in my heart, and it's a beautiful area of Venezuela.

SPEAKER_03 4:55

So you've been able to talk to all your friends and and your family affected over there?

SPEAKER_02 5:00

And they're all my my family is okay, but I I have many friends that have lost lost loved ones in in the in the in the earthquake. Uh some of them that have they have not been able to find yet, some of them that have confirmed deaths in their family. So it as Ed said it's an ongoing situation. There's many people that are still under the rubble. Uh we hope that uh there they will find more people alive. Um so yeah, it it is painful. But it's the entire Venezuelan community, which is what we have seen here at Food for the Poor. We have uh we have been receiving pe uh calls from the Venezuelan community because they they're hurting, but they want to turn that help in that herd into help. Right. So we are c getting calls for people that want to volunteer or that want to bring items to be sent to Venezuela. So that's a great reaction out of all of this uh pain.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

This is a um a a natural disaster of uh incredible proportions that is striking a country that was already struggling economically in a very significant way. Uh some of the public, I mean I'm hearing this is national information, but some public servants who are maybe only receiving a couple hundred dollars a month. You know, and so um you know there have been lots of financial constraints on the population. Yeah. So this is this goes beyond anything that we're it's like tragedy upon tragedy, I think is the way to think about it.

How Disaster Response Starts

SPEAKER_03 6:27

I think a lot of people know Food for the Poor for the way that we respond quickly after disasters. Ed, could you just walk us through what happens after an emergency like this?

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Aaron Powell We have uh briefing sessions where we're told what's what's officially known, and then uh we we plan to say, oh, what can we do at what point? Because uh we do certain things in the the first few weeks, which are gonna be in the relief category of getting supplies out that are food-based or hygiene kit-based, things that are of immediate basic need. But then you have to get to those next phases about all right, what are you gonna do about the shelter problem, for example? And then long-term, I mean, you're talking about livelihoods, right? So I mean, this is what we've done in in so many countries, but uh Venezuela, we haven't uh we don't we don't have a history. And the good news is we have partners that um we have been developing relationships with, and says has been key to that, for the last, you know, two or three years. So we're able to pick up from those relationships and start to get prepared very quickly.

SPEAKER_03 7:30

So how important is it to have partners during a disaster like this?

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Well, if if you don't have a partner, you actually cannot do anything. It's that fundamental. You've got to have someone you can rely on to complete your supply chain so you get what you intend to get to its intended uh destination, which is those who are in in need. As you can imagine, there's all kinds of reasons why uh things don't work out well if you can't trust and rely on others to help you. So uh our partnership model uh is exact which we've really built up in the last six years and through CESA's, uh most of most of the work's been through CESA is exactly the reason why we can have confidence about who we're gonna work with. And um, you know, now we're just sort of really leveraging that that uh those initial relationships and now really working on okay, how are we gonna do this for the long term.

SPEAKER_03 8:27

Right.

What Families Need Right Now

SPEAKER_03 8:28

And people are probably asking right now, what do families need? What do families need right now? What is food for the poor sending?

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Uh you just have to sort of put yourself in the mindset of someone who's just lost everything. Right. And so food and water are essential. Um if they've sustained injuries, uh, you need the medicines and medical supplies. If they are, you know, uh people have prescriptions like like you know I do. You know, it's like you need you need to get back onto a normal uh regimen of whatever it is. So those things are vital. But uh and those are the things that we that we are uh we have a long history. I mean, 44 years of of responding to these crises. So that's what's going out. Uh we have F-Rate going out tomorrow, uh, and then um Ocean Freight will be is is lining up right now. So Amazing. And that's a that's a channel, both those channels where we can uh continue to provide that pipeline of uh support. It does require funding, and um, so you know the the generosity of donors who support Food for the Poor are absolutely critical uh to make this uh the the reality that we know we can provide.

Community Drives And Supply Pipelines

SPEAKER_03 9:35

We've had a lot of community partnerships this week. I think it was yesterday PANA restaurants donated 13 pallets of relief supplies.

SPEAKER_02 9:45

Yes, actually up to uh uh to today it will be a total of 45 pallets that they have donated. Wow. There's more coming from the restaurants in Orlando. So PANA has been a great partner of food for the poor, and we're most grateful to them.

SPEAKER_03 9:56

And I am I'm hearing that that is mostly collected from the community and their customers.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

Yes, so they have restaurants in in Western Dural and Orlando. And these communities, the the Venezuelan communities in these cities are is is mobile are mobilizing to obtain this support, and then PANA is is the one that is collecting and they're bringing trucks to food for the poor. They're they're a blessing.

SPEAKER_03 10:21

Forty-five pallets in just a couple days. Yes. That's that's the response from the community.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Yes, that's a response from PANA and from these communities, yes. Yes. Yes, yes. And they're also uh sending other other trucks to other organizations as well. So their their effort has been amazing.

SPEAKER_03 10:40

Yeah, I think that's been one of the more encouraging things this week is to hear how the South Florida community has just rallied together and especially helped during this crisis. I think the Hispanic Heritage Chamber of Commerce, they were just here and we had a couple volunteers come in packing, and they were they were emotional.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

We had 80 volunteers that came from the his from the Hispanic Heritage Chamber.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

It was a tremendous blessing that was this Monday. Not only are they coming to help us pack, but they're also connecting us with corporations that are part of these packing events that we're having conversations with in order to engage with those corporations for funding and for resources. So it's it's great. We also had the uh the blessing to have the uh Rich Walker here. He's the Parkland mayor, he was here yesterday, so he's activating the Parkland community. And then we have our team in partnerships, is reaching out to the different cities and churches around the the three the tri-county area, Palm Beach County, Brower County, and Miami Dade County to help us in this response.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

Yeah. And I think one of the things we should just say is that w we always intend to be as efficient as we can with whatever is de is donated to us, whether it's cash or it's or it's goods. So you should think of Foo for the Poor being a very large logistics and distribution organization that is able to purchase at you know uh you know discounted prices or receive free goods at a bulk level, and then it can be brought into a warehouse and packed. So using thousands of volunteers is which is what we use, uh, allows us to be very efficient with that. And then you've got a kit that is ready to be delivered literally from the back of a truck when it when it gets to its destination. So it speeds everything up and makes it easy at the uh at the end of the line for those that are distributing to just literally hand uh a kit that literally saves lives, you know, just uh within within seconds of that door of the of the container being opened. Right.

Grief, Volunteers, And Messages Of Hope

SPEAKER_03 12:42

I think, you know, we talked about how obviously this hits home for you, César, because Venezuela's home. But I saw it was hitting close to home for the volunteers that came in on Monday. Absolutely. I was watching a couple of them actually get like emotional while panicking. They were crying while panicking, yes, hearing songs about Venezuela. Yes. A lot of them have family members that they still haven't heard from. Yes. Or that had tragically passed away in the tragedy, and are here panicking still.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

Because today's them. Tomorrow we don't know.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

Many of the people from Venezuela that are living in the US, which, you know, some of them are are volunteers, are people that would prefer to be living in Venezuela. Right. The only reason why they are here in the US is because of the current con economic and social conditions in Venezuela. So this uh earthquake really hit home inside of their hearts because they have their parents, their grandparents or cousins that they grew up with in Venezuela, and some of them have been part of the uh, you know, have suffered in this tragedy.

SPEAKER_03 14:14

Yeah, I I could feel that just in the atmosphere.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

It was in the atmosphere. It was heavy. It hit me as well. Because when you're start listening, some of the songs from your country and you and you see people from Venezuela coming together, singing, crying together, packing, it hit home to all of us.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Aaron Powell Well, I think there's also the effect, so with every kit, we're putting a little note in there and written in Spanish. And it's a it's a message of of faith and hope, right? Trying to encourage the recipient. And that's that's a very emotional thing. So it's not just the goods, it's the like there's a human behind this this kit that is wishing you and uh you know all of God's grace. Amen. And and and that really makes a huge difference.

SPEAKER_03 14:56

Yeah, we're we're praying over those containers before we send them off. Like it's not just relief and aid that we're sending off, like we're sending it off with prayer.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

Yes, and and remember, Anna, that uh that's what makes Food for the Poor special, is the presence of God. God is present in everything that we do, and He was present here on Monday when those volunteers came. So that presence also has an effect on people. Yeah. Right? So that's our people are emotional, but people are engaged and peep in the in the number one thing that we're doing is bringing that presence to Venezuela in the way of hope by helping in any way that we can.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

Yeah.

Why We Act Without A Base

SPEAKER_03 15:34

Food for the poor doesn't have a permanent operational presence inside of Venezuela. Um we don't have you know established partners, like you said, but yet we're responding. Why is it important to act?

SPEAKER_01 15:49

We have uh intended to be in Venezuela for uh years. Okay. And in fact, we were uh really trying to respond to the malaria crisis a few years ago, and uh we have been supporting uh the neighboring countries with some of the migrant uh challenges as so many people left Venezuela. So um I think it's uh you know our example is is very straightforward. It's easy to to replicate uh how how we do things. So we didn't have a presence in Colombia five years ago. Now we're a major partner because of who we engage with right from the first step. And so we have total confidence because um people do believe in food for the poor. They that we know who who we can trust and they advise us as to who uh we should now and go partner with. So we already know who we're going to work with. Right. Because I said we've been working those relationships for a couple of years now. Uh and um so we should have uh every expectation that uh we can handle uh all the donations, all all of the uh opportunity that is given by the generosity of those that can give so that we can serve those who are so desperately needed.

SPEAKER_03 16:57

Yeah. I love that about Food for the Poor, that obviously, even though Venezuela isn't one of our primary countries, so to say, like we're still responding immediately and effectively, super effectively.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Aaron Powell Our region is Latin America and the Caribbean. Venezuela is clearly in that spot. We've been wanting to be there for years. We've been able to do that. It's almost like biblical, though.

SPEAKER_03 17:16

Like they're our neighbors and we're gonna help them. That's our mission.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Well, let's think about what the gospel teaches us, right? Love God and love thy neighbor. And then and to ignore the Venezuelans that would actually be criminal in my mind. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

Agreed. But that that's our mission. That's literally our mission.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

And as Ed said, it it has been our intention for a number of years to to work in Venezuela. As a matter of fact, we were able to send containers to Venezuela a few years ago. Right. Uh but um it it it's always in God's time, and we do believe that this is the time for us to be in Venezuela.

Long-Term Rebuilding And Donor Impact

SPEAKER_03 17:50

Cesar, as we uh uh uh uh close this out, if if if families in Venezuela could hear this conversation today, what would you want them to know?

SPEAKER_02 17:59

The first thing that I want him to know is that we love them, that God loves them, that we're thinking of them every minute of the day. Uh Food for the Poor has been working nonstop since we heard about the earthquake in Venezuela. We have been reaching out to every organization, institution, and person that uh supports us. We're in the fifteen countries that we that we do, and we've been reaching out to the community. So we will be in Venezuela, uh, and we will bring hope to Venezuela, and hopefully we will also have the opportunity to help rebuild Venezuela after this strategy.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

And I would also say that uh look at our track record over 44 years. Uh we we don't just go in for a short run, we go in there to uh sort of literally walk alongside everybody and and do everything we can to help the greatest number of people. And our our target is those in extreme poverty, right? And so um and so that those are the people that we prioritize our help to. Uh but uh I think um we have confidence that we're gonna be able to to really stay the course in Venezuela because of how we have always acted. This is in our DNA.

SPEAKER_03 19:13

Ed, for someone who is listening and wonders whether a donation can truly make a difference, what would you say?

SPEAKER_01 19:20

This is always the question. Um, I mean, I lived my life in the corporate uh sphere and and for 30 years, and uh I'm uh I'm here because of what I saw Foo for the Poor do in Haiti uh in 2009. And um and the scale of what needed to be done in Haiti is is overwhelming. Uh, but I could see how Foo for the Poor was literally one building block at a time, whether that's a house or it's actually you know a programmatic response. I could see what we were doing, and that's why I wanted to be part of Foo for the Poor. And I'm I'm um extremely confident that that there is always a way forward, there's always something you can do. We often talk about um the fact that we know we're always going to make a difference to one person or a family, but what if you can do at a community level at a time? And that's really what we've focused on in the last few years, is working at the community level, knowing that uh we can help thousands of people to answer your question. Um, have confidence based on our history of what we do. Uh we are a four-star charity. It's we've been here for 44 years. Right. We have extremely uh reputable partners that we work with, and um uh we're intent on serving Venezuela just as we've served these other countries for so long.

Ways To Help Venezuela Today

SPEAKER_03 20:40

As we've heard today, the need in Venezuela is immense, but so is the opportunity to make a difference. If you'd like to stand with the families affected by this horrible disaster, there are several ways you can help. You can make a financial gift to support emergency relief efforts, you can purchase urgently needed supplies through our Amazon wish list, and most importantly, you can keep the people of Venezuela and the team serving on the ground in your prayers. To make a donation to support the relief efforts, you can visit foodforthepoor.org slash help Venezuela. You can also text Venezuela to 78077 to make a gift. If you'd like to purchase urgently needed supplies, you can shop our Amazon wish list at foodforthepoor.org slash Venezuela list. Every act of generosity, whether it be a donation, a care package, or a prayer, helps bring hope, healing, and relief to families who need it the most. Thank you for listening to Be on the Plate, and we'll see you next time.