FFCC marks 20 years of helping those near and far

Through the efforts of countless volunteers, Friends & Family Community Connection has been helping those in need locally and abroad for 20 years.

“To see so many volunteers of all ages ... coming together to help support our work locally and internationally is my greatest thrill,” said founder Phil Harris about reaching the milestone this summer. A group of FFCC core leaders gathered on July 24 to celebrate the anniversary.

Harris said he never could have imagined the impact and growth FFCC would have when in 1996 he decided to help a neighborhood in Rancho Penasquitos by picking up litter during his commute to work.

That led to Harris having conversations with the residents and learning about their difficulties in providing after-school activities and sports leagues for their children due to work schedules and financial constraints. In response, Harris got some friends together to form a youth basketball league. That led to learning about more problems within the 5-mile area of low-income apartments where 21 languages were spoken and Harris deciding to lead an effort to help the families with after-school programing for the kids plus literacy assistance, job training and other guidance for the parents.

By 2002, FFCC was officially formed as a non-profit organization based in Rancho Bernardo and its volunteers started looking beyond their immediate area for ways and places to help.

Since 2007, FFCC has hosted or helped organize 102 food packing events throughout the United States, with almost 13 million meals distributed to those in the United States and overseas as of this month, according to the FFCC website. The rice-based meals are filled with protein, vitamins and vegetables.

“That is one of the many amazing milestones FFCC and volunteers accomplished,” Harris said.

While 1.7 million of the meals have been distributed locally and across the U.S., another 5.7 million were shipped to Tanzania, 3.3 million to Haiti, 1 million to Mexico, 600,000 to the Philippines, 158,000 to Honduras and 300,000 among other countries.

FFCC has also installed more than 30,000 water filters around the world to fight against illnesses caused by water-borne bacteria, he said.

Volunteers have not only sent supplies overseas, but gone to countries — often those devastated by earthquake or hurricane — to see the situation first-hand, to help where they can and set up partnerships with local governments and organizations. Harris said approximately 1,000 volunteers have gone on FFCC mission trips, including 27 trips to Tanzania, 28 to Haiti and seven to the Philippines. One of its latest outreach efforts is in Ecuador and it is starting a project to provide housing for refugees in Haiti sent there from the Dominican Republic.

“The amount of suffering and inhumane treatment is due to their living conditions with no sanitation,” he said. “The situation is dire, horrible.”

Among other overseas efforts, FFCC has constructed vocational training centers in Tanzania and Haiti, is developing a family reunification program in Haiti and is also working in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Columbia, Honduras, India, Nepal, Afghanistan, Jamaica and Mexico. Many of its volunteers travel abroad as part of medical missions to provide medical care where there is none or access is extremely limited.

Other projects have included bringing solar power to remote areas in Haiti and Tanzania, where there is little or no electricity and people have to walk for hours to charge their inexpensive cell phones. It has also helped provide funding for schools and supplies so children can get an education.

Locally, FFCC is helping families too. It helps provide fresh produce and non-perishable foods to families in need, mostly within the Poway Unified School District. It also hosts a Thanksgiving dinner program, has volunteers working with the homeless and low-income seniors in downtown San Diego, and provides assistance on a case-by-case basis when local families fall on hard times.

To volunteer with FFCC projects or to make a donation, go to ffccsd.org.