Feed The Children Celebrates 30th Anniversary of Helping Children and Families Worldwide

Feed The Children Celebrates 30th Anniversary of Helping Children and Families
Worldwide

OKLAHOMA CITY, March 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Feed The Children is
observing its 30th birthday in 2009 the same way it began - by helping the
world's hungry children and families.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090301/78030LOGO )

In 1979, the plight of hungry children was brought home to Larry Jones, a
minister attending a conference in Haiti. There, he met a young boy named
Jason, who had not eaten all day and was asking for a few pennies so that he
could buy a piece of bread. Jones bought the boy a roll, some butter and a
soft drink, and then marveled that this young man was starving while grain was
rotting back in the U.S. due to a lack of market for its growers.

Sitting at his kitchen table with wife, Frances, they decided to form an
organization that would bring that surplus food to the world's hungry, and
farmers began to dump bags of grain in the driveway of the Jones' Oklahoma
City home. From that humble beginning, Feed The Children was born and now 30
years later, the nonprofit organization has grown into one of the largest
non-governmental supported aid groups in the U.S.

Jason, the young boy who inspired help for the world's hungry, kept in touch
with the Jones' and Feed The Children throughout the years. But after rising
out of poverty and starting his own career as a minister, Jason died last year
in his native country.

Still, his spirit lives on in the symbol of Feed The Children - a young boy
with a bowl reaching up to implore the world to answer his plea for food.
Since that first encounter in 1979, Feed The Children has worked in 118
countries and in all 50 states in the United States, providing help to
millions of people along the way.

Now, with six distribution centers in the U.S. and international operations on
five continents, Feed The Children provides food for more than 800,000 meals
each day worldwide. Feed The Children is also a first-responder in natural
disasters, having provided almost 700 trucks of food and supplies to victims
of Hurricane Katrina, and millions of dollars of aid to those affected by the
Asian Tsunami.

Currently, Feed The Children is focused on communities affected by the recent
economic downturn in the U.S., where 89 percent of its overall work is done.
The second stop of the Americans Feeding America caravan is set for March 10
in Elkhart, IN, where 13 truckloads of food and personal care items will be
delivered to children and families devastated by job layoffs in the Michiana
area.

Feed The Children will continue its 30th anniversary observation by
spotlighting the plight of the hungry all across the world and welcomes
support from businesses and individuals who recognize the need to care for
those less fortunate around them.

About Feed The Children
Founded in 1979 by Larry and Frances Jones, Feed The Children is consistently
ranked as one of the 10 largest international charities in the U.S., based on
private, non-government support. Feed The Children is a Christian,
international, nonprofit relief organization with headquarters in Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma, that delivers food, medicine, clothing and other necessities
to individuals, children and families who lack these essentials due to famine,
war, poverty or natural disasters. In FY 2007, Feed The Children distributed
more than 135 million pounds of food and other essentials to children and
their families in all 50 states and internationally, supplementing almost
800,000 meals each day. For more information, please visit
www.feedthechildren.org.

SOURCE Feed The Children

Tony Sellars, Office: +1-405-945-4077, or Cell: +1-405-313-9890