842 Houses in a Single Year: How a Christian Charity Became a Major Jamaican Home Builder

• Food For The Poor built a record 842 houses in Jamaica in 2015
• Each unit has two bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom, living and dining room
• Homes come with a 400-gallon water tank and a small solar system
• The charity was founded by Ferdinand Mahfood in 1982

Food For The Poor, the Christian relief charity founded by Ferdinand Mahfood in 1982, marked 34 years of work in Jamaica in March 2016 with a striking housing figure: a record 842 houses built on the island in 2015.

The Gleaner reported that each house has two bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom and a combined living and dining room. Every unit comes with a 400-gallon water tank, a gutter that harvests rainwater, and a solar power system that runs three light bulbs and can charge a phone. For families moving out of board shacks, those details mean a reliable water supply and light at night without a monthly bill.

Chairman Andrew Mahfood, the founder’s nephew, linked the house-building directly to the charity’s anti-poverty mission. “To get out of poverty, people need a house, access to health care, education and a source of income,” he said. Recalling his uncle’s decision to start the charity after migrating, he said: “When he migrated, he felt a greater calling to serve the less fortunate… it has mushroomed.”

By then the organisation, led in Jamaica by executive director David Mair, worked in 17 Latin American and Caribbean countries, covering housing, education, health care, agriculture, prison ministry and social outreach. In Jamaica, house-building had become one of its most visible outputs.

The significance for Jamaica is scale. A faith-based charity delivering hundreds of basic homes in a year fills a gap that the formal market and mortgage lenders do not reach: families with no savings, no loan eligibility and often no clear land title. For churches and donors, including those in the diaspora, it shows how Christian giving can translate into physical shelter, and it raises the question of how such homes connect to land ownership and long-term security for the families who receive them.

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