Quake latest: Food grows scarcer for thousands of Venezuelan families
Before the disaster, the World Food Programme (WFP) was already assisting around 500,000 people through school meals and community support. Now, the agency is shifting its work toward emergency assistance.Holding his three young children by the hand, one stricken father told UN humanitarian teams he no longer had shelter, water or food. The children's mother had been hospitalized in Caracas, and the family had lost neighbours and relatives under the rubble.Hungry and homelessThe scene, described from La Guaira by WFP's Director in Venezuela, Stephanie Hochstetter, captures a new urgency after the earthquakes: for many families, surviving the disaster also means figuring out where the next meal will come from.“It's heartbreaking to see the desperation,” she said, speaking at a virtual press briefing for UN correspondents from one of the integrated service centres the UN has set up in the region.
WFP has already distributed emergency food packages to 1,200 people in La Guaira, one of the hardest-hit areas, and is preparing to scale up assistance to reach half a million people in shelters over the next three months.“The needs for food, safe water, shelter and essential services are immediate and critical,” Ms. Hochstetter said, speaking from the coastal state.Uncertainty reignsAt the centres set up after the earthquakes, some families can still cook. The problem is that many can no longer buy food regularly.
