World Job and Food Bank -- Emergency Food

Emergency Food Program
Mexico City Earthquake, 1985

In September 1985, a strong earthquake occurred in Mexico City, Mexico. At least 9,500 people were killed, about 30,000 were injured, more than 100,000 people were left homeless. Severe damage was caused in parts of Mexico City and in several states of central Mexico.

The Global Food Bank Association (now known as the World Job and Food Bank) reacted quickly to this emergency situation. A team of three, headed by Joseph Edison, visited Mexico City to identify the immediate needs for the disaster relief. The investigation indicated food was needed immediately.

A food program was proposed - "Mexico Earthquake Relief Project". The goals and objectives of the project were to gather donations from people and food companies in Canada, and transfer them to Mexico City, as well as to assist in distribution of that food to the poor, homeless and jobless through the City of Mexico Food Bank and Caritas de Mexico.

We anticipated that 2,000 families would require approximately 1,000 tonnes of food during the next three months. We needed approximately 360,000 kilos of canned beans, 36,000 kilos of macaroni, 190,000 kilos of powered milk, 56,000 liters cooking oil, 180,000 kilos of rice and 15,000 kilos of baby food. We published a request for food donations from the people of Canada in newspapers, television and radio. The responses were overwhelming. We received donations from different organizations, communities, food companies, etc. We had tremendous support from Air Canada, Canadian Pacific Rail, Union Pacific Railway of U.S.A. and NDM railway of Mexico for free transportation of the food to Mexico city. Gulf Canada provided us free use of their fax machine for communication. Canadian and U.S. Custom Brokers also provided supports for relief food for the earthquake victims in Mexico. We received enough food to feed the poor in Mexico for over eight months instead of only three.

During these eight months, the distribution of the food was a big task. We worked together with the Mexico City Food Bank (which had recently been established with the help of the Global Food Bank Association) and Caritas de Mexico and set up a very efficient distribution system for food delivery to ensure that the food would reach the family level. Five coordinators from each community church monitored the food delivery to each victim family. A record of deliveries to each family had been made. There was a team of 150 young Canadian and Americans from "A Ministry of Youth With a Mission" involved in the distribution also. They volunteered for delivery as well as monitoring.

In the eight month period, we had successfully collected, transported and distributed 1,500 Tonnes worth over $ 10 million of canned food, rice, milk power cereal, baby food, sugar, potatoes, etc. to the earthquake victims families in Mexico City.

We would like to express our deep gratitude and sincerely thanks to those who contributed so much to the Mexico Earthquake Relief Project. With their supports, we achieved our goals and objectives and successfully helped thousands of families in Mexico City recover from the earthquake disaster. We especially thank H.J. Heinz Company of Canada for their $ 3 million worth of food donations.

Thanks also for the support from the government of Alberta, Canada, government of United States, Government of Mexico as well as the Mexican Consulates all over Canada. Also thanks to The Salvation Army of Canada, the Calgary Chinese Community, then Mayor Ralph Klein, the City of Calgary, Air Canada, Continental Airlines, Canadian Food for Children and Canada Safeway.