Convoy of Hope gets $378K grant for Haiti relief

Convoy of Hope received a grant of nearly $378,000 from The Kellogg Foundation to help cover the costs of the Springfield-based organization's relief and recovery work in Haiti following the winter earthquake.

Convoy volunteers have been in Haiti distributing food, water and supplies to earthquake victims since January. Those efforts built on the organization's existing relief efforts there to feed the population, which Convoy has called the poorest in the Western hemisphere.

According to a Convoy news release, the group has a three-year recovery strategy for Haiti, including a community stabilization initiative to distribute food and water purification units along with re-establishing schools.

"Since the earthquake struck we have distributed more than 8.5 million meals," Jeff Nene, senior director of communications and technology, said in the release. "We have also installed large-scale Culligan water purification units in Port-au-Prince and will continue to distribute thousands of water purification units and hygiene kits to families in the capital and surrounding areas."

The Kellogg grant is retroactive to January and will run through July, according to the release.