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-- <December 9, 2003> Guam to Receive Federal Funds for Emergency Food and Shelter Program: $151,470 to Assist Guam Families in Need FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – December 9, 2003 – Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Bordallo announced that $151,470 has been awarded to Guam by the Emergency Food and Shelter (EFS) Program. The EFS National Board is chaired by the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and composed of representatives from the American Red Cross, Catholic Charities USA, United Jewish Communities, National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., The Salvation Army, and United Way of America. It provides supplemental funding to shelters, soup kitchens, food banks, rent, mortgage, and utility assistance programs. The funds are used to help individuals and families with non-disaster, temporary financial emergency needs. In each jurisdiction funded, a Local Board advertises the availability of the funds, establishes local priorities, selects local non-profit and government agencies to receive supplemental funding, and monitors program compliance. The Local Board’s composition mirrors the EFS National Board, with a local government official selected by members of the Local Board replacing FEMA as the chair. The EFS Program has been existence since 1983 and was authorized under the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987. To date, the EFS Program has distributed more than $2.4 billion in communities nationwide, and has accounted for millions of additional meals and nights of shelter to those people most in need of such help. “Given the degree Guam’s non-profit organizations are strained in responding to natural disasters, the $150,000 in federal funds brought to Guam as part of the Emergency Food and Shelter Program will go a long way towards helping these organizations respond to the needs of Guam families on a day-to-day basis. Guam has received these funds on an annual basis and in these trying times it is more crucial than ever to support the relief organization that help people who have no where else to go,” Bordallo said. ### Contact: Neil Weare
in Washington, D.C., at (202) 225-1188 or Joaquin
Perez in Guam at (671) 477-4272. |
