"Yesterday we ate, but today we don't have food," says Virginia Nzyoka, a Kenyan mother of five who also cares for four orphaned relatives.
Virginia is far from alone. Four years of extended drought left thousands of Kenyans with little or nothing to eat. Crops and livestock withered away. The global financial crisis compounded the problem, eliminating opportunities to earn money and raising food prices.
Working closely with local Church partners, Catholic Relief Services was able to provide $40 worth of emergency food vouchers to each of 2,300 families in coastal and eastern Kenya.
"I have nothing to cook," explains Mary Mutinda, a 45-year-old mother of eight children who planned to use the vouchers to buy a bag of corn to feed her household of 10 people for three weeks. "I'm trusting God that since I've come this far, he will provide even when that bag is finished. I didn't expect to survive this far."
The vouchers provided an emergency cushion: Needy families could trade them for food of their choice at certain stores, and the store owners then exchanged the vouchers for cash at diocesan offices.
CRS Kenya is now expanding this project to help prevent future loss of crops. Members of poor farming households will receive food vouchers in exchange for their work on structures that prevent soil erosion and water loss.
Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS 
Help provide orphans in Lesotho food and the chance continue their education.
