Dade commissioners call for aid to Haiti
BY TRENTON DANIEL
tdaniel@MiamiHerald.com
Three Miami-Dade officials called on local authorities to do more to help Haiti following a whirl-wind day trip to the Caribbean nation on Monday.
''We need to do more to help our neighbors in Haiti,'' said Commissioner Dennis Moss, holding up half of a ''mud cookie'' -- a mixture of salt, vegetable oil and dirt that's used to stave off hunger. ''This is what people have been [relegated] to eating in Haiti.'' The day trip came after Miami-Dade Commissioners Audrey Edmonson and Barbara Jordan launched a two-week food drive in May in an effort to help stem a food crisis in Haiti.
In April, at least six people were killed in food-related riots in Haiti and Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis was fired.
It wasn't until last week that a successor, Michéle Pierre-Louis, was approved. Pierre-Louis, an economist and longtime grassroots advocate, still needs to present her political plan and 16-member Cabinet before Parliament for a second vote.
On Monday, Edmonson, Jordan and Moss toured a food distribution center of Food For The Poor, in Port-au-Prince. They said they helped hand out almost 20 tons of food.
''We distributed it hands on,'' Moss said, referring to the pasta, water and canned goods collected from the food drive.
In addition to visiting the Port-au-Prince facility, the commissioners stopped in Cité Soleil, a swelling seaside slum where they saw homes with zinc roofs and dirt floors.
''I am embarrassed that our country has not done more,'' Jordan said. ``I understand even more why people are leaving Haiti.''
The commissioners were joined by Angel Aloma, executive director of Food For The Poor, which is based in Coconut Creek, in their tour of Port-au-Prince. They returned to Miami late Monday.
The three commissioners are up for reelection in August.
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