World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

The powerful earthquake that rocked Haiti "destroyed" much of Port-au-Prince, the country's first lady reported, as the widespread devastation in the country's teeming capital came into full view Wednesday as dawn broke.(..)The U.N. World Food Programme also planned to send a plane with 87 metric tons of high-energy biscuits, said spokeswoman Bettina Luescher in New York. That's enough to feed 30,000 people for a week.

Thousands of people slept in the streets and parks of Haiti's capital Wednesday night with little hope of aid a day after an earthquake flattened the city.(..)"We will work with the Haitian government, with our humanitarian partners on the ground, and with governments across the world as part of a coordinated international rescue and recovery effort," Josette Sheeran, head of the U.N. WFP, said in a statement.

Telecommunications experts trained in disaster relief operations left Dubai for Haiti last night, assigned with re-establishing power and communications. Two members of the UN WFP Fast IT and Telecommunications Emergency and Support Team (Fittest), Dane Novarlic and William Twyford, are expected to arrive in Haiti today with more than 400kg of equipment and more than a decade of disaster relief experience.

A quake measuring 7.0 on the moment magnitude scale rocked the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti Tuesday causing panic as it struck, officials and AFP witnesses said.(..)The WFP serves one meal a day to more than 500,000 Haitian schoolchildren, providing them with what is often their only meal of the day. The organization also feeds 100,000 women who are pregnant or breastfeeding and 50,000 children under the age of five.

A year after a series of natural disasters and civil unrest rooted in increasing food prices ravaged Haiti, people there are still struggling to recover. A third of the population - 1.9 million people - still do not have a guaranteed supply of food. In 2008, the UN WFP helped 2.9 million people in Haiti.

With its rich delta soil and a year-round growing season, Haiti's famous agricultural region seems capable of feeding the entire Caribbean. But Haiti is a net importer of food, spending about $400 million last year on purchases from abroad. The World Food Programme runs child nutrition and "food for work" operations.

More than 250 students have gathered in the two rooms of a small public school here, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the country's capital Port-au-Prince, waiting for a meal prepared by the World Food Program.

In Balan, when two World Food Program (WFP) vehicles rolled into town recently to supervise the cafeteria at a small public school, residents rushed to meet them, hoping for food. The WFP serves one meal a day to more than 500 000 Haitian schoolchildren, providing them with what is often their only meal of the day. The organization also feeds 100 000 women who are pregnant or breastfeeding and 50 000 children under the age of five.

A Haitian child carries a bag of food during a food distribution of from the United Nations World Food Program, Programme Alimentaire Mondial (PAM) on November 12, 2009 in Balan a suburb of Ganthier.

Last year, Haiti was devastated by four hurricanes in as many weeks, killing 1,000 people and leaving 800,000 homeless. Hundreds died in the town of Gonaives after many houses were completely submerged in water. (..) In addition to this food-for-work scheme run by the UN's World Food Programme, the nearby river Cant has been dredged to help prevent it bursting its banks and an emergency shelter for 2,500 people is under construction.