Friends and supporters of Bryantsville Hunger Relief Project,
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our thanks and prayers for your continued financial and prayer support of our work. The purpose of this letter is to inform you of changes occurring at BHRP. Over the past 35 years over 200,000 bags of corn have been provided to mission groups and faith-based organizations around the world. This approach has been effective; however, this business model has become cumbersome in recent years. Several changes have occurred well outside of our control that have caused us to reevaluate our approach. Notable among these changes are:
Increasing cost of transportation. The burden on our mission partners has increased to the point that some of our long-time outlets for the corn is now out of reach financially. Over the past two years some of our long established mission partners have declined corn due to lack of funding for transportation. Some foreign countries have imposed restrictions or outright bans on imported raw food products. In some cases these governments are emphasizing local purchase. Others continue to use food as a political weapon to keep people reliant on the government. The pool of workers available to manage and maintain grain-handling operations continues to age. Scheduling work groups and coordinating logistics with mission partners is being handled by fewer people who are stretched for time. As a result, beginning in 2021 BHRP will no longer bag and ship whole kernel corn. However, there is no intent to cease providing help feeding hungry people. The mission remains constant, the method is being revised. Moving forward our focus will be to leverage the network of organizations involved in feeding people through direct financial support of established food distribution organizations. Over the years you have entrusted the management of BHRP to choose reliable, well-established ministries for the recipients of corn. For this we are thankful and honored to have held your trust. Moving forward, the analysis and investigations will continue to be applied to the organizations selected.
Our prayer is that using these funds they can acquire food without the expense of transporting heavy corn. Direct funding to these organizations will provide them greater flexibility to purchase food locally or use lighter weight food products.
Over the years we have collected information and worked with many different organizations with major feeding and food distribution programs in several foreign countries and in the United States. Moving forward we will distribute the funds available to us directly to a selection taken from this list. In addition, we will continue investigation to identify specific project needs related to food distribution. The plan is for the board to quarterly review the funds available and the known mission groups to determine distributions. Organizations with whom we have previously partnered and new initiatives that come to our attention will be evaluated.
While this method of operation does not have the unique niche of bagging corn, we believe it is the best way to have an impact on hunger around the world. Our prayer is that our current faithful financial supporters will journey with us on this new path. However, we fully understand your organization may well choose to redirect your funding to other missions. As from the beginning our goal and prayer is that we use all means available to spread the Gospel of Christ. We believe strongly that feeding people physically supports and strengthens programs that feed people spiritually.
Going forward current information and updates on activities and distributions will also be maintained on our Facebook page.
In Christ’s Service, Board of Directors - Bryantsville Hunger Relief Project