COCONUT CREEK, Fla. – Food for the Poor is packing up donations to help islands in the Caribbean that were affected by Hurricane Maria.
Three 40-foot containers were loaded up Monday morning and are already on the way to the islands.
"None of those islands are wealthy enough or prepared for a devastation of this magnitude," Food for the Poor's executive director Angel Aloma said. "First Irma came by and started it, then Maria came by and finished it."
Boxes of supplies were loaded onto pallets and placed in containers at Food for the Poor's warehouse in Coconut Creek Monday morning.
"It's all the stuff they would need immediately -- clean water for drinking, canned foods, blankets, hygiene items, tarps, buckets to start the clean-up process," Aloma said.
Three containers were sent to the port Monday morning, and from there will sail to Dominica, Antigua and St. Lucia.
"Through our partners in St. Lucia we’re helping St. Martin and the Virgin Islands, and through our partner in Antigua, we are helping Barbuda," Aloma said. "Barbuda was declared inhabitable -- that's how terribly it was destroyed."
Aloma said Food for the Poor will be helping out for the long haul.
"It's great to help out at the beginning when all the news media takes care of it, but then eventually it becomes old news, but the devastation does not become old news for them," Aloma said.
The next shipment will include things like gas chainsaws to help with the cutting away of trees, and generators to provide some electricity.