Meet Gary Edmonds of Food for the Hungry (FH) in Downtown

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gary Edmonds.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Gary. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I first engaged with those living in poverty during a 12-week trip to Asia in 1971. During this time, my eyes were opened to vulnerable people in ways that I had never seen before. In 1972, I was asked by the US State Department to lead a team of athletes through 8 different African countries. When we arrived in Mali, my heart broke. For the first time in my life, I had a sense of being called to work amongst the poor and vulnerable on a global scale. In 1974, my wife and I resigned from our work in the US and moved to Europe to work amongst the oppressed and persecuted in Eastern Europe. While in Europe, I met some staff members of Food for the Hungry, who introduced our family to countries and cultures where men, women, and children are often fighting for survival. In 2006, I was asked to be on the International Board of Directors of Food for the Hungry. From this work, I was invited in 2014 by the Board to move to Phoenix and be the President/CEO of FH.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I have learned that the pain and struggle are part of the process to shape us and make us valuable instruments to benefit others in pursuing justice. It hasn’t always been easy; there are many stories of struggle and hardship. At times, the difficulties were more than we could endure, but God has repeatedly given us strength and provided others to walk with us in the process. At times, we faced physical persecution. Our children’s lives were threatened. The finances were extremely low. Once, we were expelled and given a life time ban from a country. Another time, we had to make a choice to take a salary or give the funds to others who were in desperate need. We spent time with three families totaling 12 people who to survive rented a two bedroom apartment and needed to burn their own furniture to stay warm in the winter. We have peered into the eyes of 12 HIV/AIDS positive men and women who were living in a single dwelling in a slum in Africa. They asked for our help and assistance. Sometimes, our own families didn’t understand why we were doing what we did and asked us to return “home” to live a more comfortable existence.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Food for the Hungry (FH) story. Tell us more about the business.
Food for the Hungry seeks to end all forms of human poverty worldwide. We do so through both our work responding to human suffering in disaster relief, as well as through creating long-term development programs on a community level. We work in some of the hardest places in the world in order to walk with the most vulnerable — especially children, women, and refugees — and work in over 20 countries worldwide.

We’re proud of the fact that we are graduating communities from extreme poverty and equipping them with solutions to be thriving, self-sustainable places. We strive to “exit” the communities we enter within 10 years of being there. We are always invited by the local leaders to work in the communities that we do, and in fact, 98% of our staff worldwide work from their country of origin. We serve approximately 15 million people worldwide, and our hope is that all of them will flourish.

Contact Info:

• Address: 1224 E Washington St, Phoenix, AZ 85034
• Website: https://www.fh.org
• Phone: 866-307-3259
• Email: hunger@fh.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/food4thehungry/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/foodforthehungry/
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/food4thehungry/

Image Credit:
Food for the Hungry

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