[Vision2020] Soldiers in Haiti Told to Stop Handing Out Food

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the Army Times at:

http://www.ArmyTimes.com

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Soldiers in Haiti told to stop handing out food
By Jim Michaels

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Food handouts were shut off Tuesday to thousands
of people at a tent city here when the main U.S. aid agency said the Army
should not be distributing the packages.

It was not known whether the action reflected a high-level policy decision
at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) or confusion in a
city where dozens of entities are involved in aid efforts.

“We are not supposed to get rations unless approved by AID,” Maj. Larry
Jordan said.

Jordan said that approval was revoked; water was not included in the USAID
decision, so the troops continued to hand out bottles of water. The State
Department and USAID did not respond to requests for comment.

Jordan has been at the airport supervising distribution of individual food
packages and bottled water since his arrival last week. Each package
provides enough calories to sustain a person for a day.

The food is flown by helicopter to points throughout the capital and
distributed by paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division. At the tent
city, set up at a golf course, more than 10,000 people displaced by the
Haitian earthquake lay under makeshift tents. Each day, hundreds of
people, many young children, line up for a meal.

Tuesday morning, the helicopters came only with water. Soldiers carried
boxes of water in the hot sun and supervised Haitian volunteers who handed
the supplies out.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown