Chris Davitt, Ruppert Companies Partner, Receives FFTP Humanitarian Award
January 10, 2001

Contact: Cheri Baker, Ruppert Companies 301/482-0300
Nicole Haye, Food For The Poor 954/427-2222

Baltimore, MD - Food For The Poor, Inc. (FFTP) honored Chris Davitt, vice president and partner of the Ruppert Companies, with its first-ever Humanitarian Award on November 3, 2000 at the organization's annual local gala. The selection criteria for this award included creating awareness and generating involvement in FFTP from others, and committing personal time and funding to the charity's causes.

According to Nicole Haye, national director of special events for FFTP, "Chris actually inspired this award. We've never given an award before, but his generosity, time, leadership and dedication to our organization merited special recognition. It's a little hard to stand out from a donor base of 1.2 million, but Chris managed to do so." Haye added that FFTP plans to give out this award annually and feels confident that it has a number of deserving individuals to choose from.

Davitt first became aware of FFTP in 1998 while listening to a guest speaker from the organization. Two years later, he visited the organization's headquarters in Deerfield Beach, FL and traveled to Haiti with FFTP founder, Ferdinand Mahfood. Following his firsthand look at the many basic human needs to be met in the Third World, Davitt pledged his initial support. Over the next two years, he chaired several events in the Washington metro area and continues to head the fundraising efforts in this region. He also, along with his business partner Craig A. Ruppert, gathered a group of 17 friends and traveled to Duvivier (Haiti) in October of 1999. There they began the construction and funded the building of 15 homes.

Food For The Poor is a nonprofit organization established in 1982 that has raised over $770 million dollars to support citizens in 26 Third World countries with food, shelter, education, medical care and other related necessities.

The Ruppert Companies owns and operates Ruppert Nurseries, Inc., Ruppert Properties, Ruppert Ventures, and DGI Transport.