RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
One big provider of food aid after catastrophes is the U.N. World Food Program. The devastation in Haiti, though, is turning into one of its biggest challenges. By yesterday, it was just beginning to make a difference, as we heard from the World Food Program's David Orr when we reached him yesterday in Port-au-Prince.
Mr. DAVID ORR (U.N. World Food Program): We estimate that we've reached about 133,000 beneficiaries with some 880,000 rations. A ration is enough food for one person to last a day. And we're distributing mostly high-energy biscuits. These are fortified biscuits, and we have been distributing rice, pulses, oil and salt. Yesterday alone, we estimate we reached 95,000 beneficiaries in various locations in and around Port-au-Prince.
MONTAGNE: And of course, 95,000 is an enormous number, and yet we know that there are hundreds of thousands more there in need.
Mr. ORR: Well, that's correct. The need is absolutely enormous, as you say. Haitian government's estimate last week of 1 million people affected, a quarter of million people in urgent need. We are actually targeting 2 million people. Within the next week, we expect to move the equivalent of 10 million ready-to-eat meals, but it could take weeks, perhaps up to a month, before we can reach the 2 million target that we have set ourselves.
MONTAGNE: But you think you can do that?
Mr. ORR: Well, at the moment, things are going well, and every day things are improving in terms of coordination with the other partners, with the government, with U.N. peacekeepers, for example, who are actually now helping us with our distributions and providing military escorts. We're working closely with the Americans, who are obviously moving huge volumes of equipment and supplies.
We are flying, for example, high-energy biscuits into outlying areas. The town of Jacmel to the south, which was badly hit, was unreachable until recently because the road was down due to a mudslide. So every day, there is an improvement and there's a new development.
MONTAGNE: Tell us what it is like when you do bring food to the people. In the early days, when food arrived, that we saw near - sometimes pictures and heard of near riots of people trying to get what little there was. Is that still a problem for you? Do you need security forces to protect your staff and your supplies?
Mr. ORR: We do use security forces. We have been enjoying the services of the U.N. battalions on the distributions that I have accompanied. We've had Sri Lankan and Nepalese security organize the beneficiaries into orderly lines so everything goes as smooth as possible. I don't think we'd claim that all of these distributions are textbook, but I certainly haven't seen any instances of panic or anything out of control.
MONTAGNE: Your agency, I gather, is trying to set up places where people can come to get the food.
Mr. ORR: That is correct. We are establishing, as of this week, four fixed distribution points in the city of Port-au-Prince so that it will not just be a case of us going out and finding the people in the makeshift camps where they've congregated, but that they will have specific places within the city to which they will be able to come and whose locations they will know.
MONTAGNE: David Orr is with the World Food Program. Thank you very much for talking with us.
Mr. ORR: Thank you very much.
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