Strong, healthy bodies are not built on a steady diet of sweet tea and bread. Parents in Dnepropetrovsk know this, but tiny or infrequent salaries can buy little else in the grocery. Some of the most desperate parents were forced to place their beloved young ones in our orphanage.

Now that the Joseph Papp Food Pantry is open, impoverished parents do not have to break up their families to provide their children with filling and nutritious meals. Vitamins, medications, and foods especially chosen for their nutritional punch are distributed from the food pantry, which is housed in the Benenson Home for Girls. Families travel for hours over rutted roads and by train to get to the Pantry. Currently, this lifeline serves 800 people each week