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Meet the man feeding thousands with egg farmers’ help


“Do ordinary things with extraordinary love,” Mother Teresa once said. There’s something extraordinary about the way Dr. Andrew Simone and his wife Joan are using the humble egg to save lives in the poorest countries on Earth. They have spent a lifetime in service to the poor, and it all began with a letter from Mother Teresa:

Our people in Tanzania and Ethiopia are hungry, so please… see how you can get the food to our sisters for our poor. To send money is not good as there is no food to buy—but in your country there is plenty…

I am praying for you all.

The Simones’ lifelong mission to serve the poor began with this simple letter from Mother Teresa, calling for food to be sent to Tanzania and Ethiopia.

It was that simple call for help which led the Simones to found Canadian Food For Children (CFFC), a charity with a simple mission—feeding the poor. The mission began with those first shipments to Tanzania and Ethiopia, two nations devastated by malnutrition resulting from severe drought. Without access to local food, the Simones’ charity was keeping entire communities alive—and it still does. In 2017, CFFC delivered an impressive 307 food shipments around the world, totalling over 5,000 metric tons. Their shipments are feeding the world’s poorest people from Haiti to Honduras, Malawi to Mexico and Zambia to Zimbabwe, with many more in between.

Mother Teresa once wrote that she did not agree with “the big way of doing things. To us, what matters is an individual.” Dr. Andrew Simone embodies that wisdom. A Harvard-educated dermatologist by vocation (and a competitive swimmer by passion), Dr. Simone was a wealthy man. But he found no happiness in wealth, so he and his wife took a vow of poverty and began their charity work. It was after that momentous moment when Dr. Simone’s priest put him in touch with Mother Teresa, who made her startling plea for action. Their initial success led Mother Teresa to provide a letter of reference so Dr. Simone could continue gathering more food and sending shipments to even more countries.

Canadian Food For Children today is fueled by the generous donations of Canadian companies and organizations. Dr. Simone treasures the 16 metric tons of powdered eggs that Egg Farmers of Canada donates annually—equivalent to about 1.27 million eggs every year.

Dr. Andrew Simone, pictured with just a small portion of the 16 tons of powdered eggs Egg Farmers of Canada donates annually to Canadian Food For Children.

“I’ve seen whole meals composed of powdered eggs,” Dr. Simone says.

“It’s the best food—otherwise, many of these people don’t have protein foods. You can’t do anything better than an egg.”

Thousands of children have benefited from Dr. Simone’s work—and in small part due to eggs— but Dr. Simone remains squarely interested in the individuals he serves. It’s an attitude reflected in Mother Teresa’s own emphasis on helping one person at a time—Dr. Simone is less interested in talking about numbers and more interested in talking about young lives he’s helped change.

He tells us about a young boy named Richard, dying of AIDS, who brought a smile to his face after he was given the simple gift of a tennis ball. He shows us a photo of a beaming young girl in the Philippines, little Zachari, whose mother supports five children alone after Zachari’s father died in an accident. She is standing next to a large box of powdered eggs.

CFFC sends food shipments to 22 countries—including some of the poorest on Earth—benefitting thousands of people.

So, how can you help? There are so many ways, and everyone can help save the life of children around the world. Because against such suffering, the Simones have marshalled an extraordinarily efficient mission. Just one dollar donated to Canadian Food For Children provides 20 meals to the poor. With just a $20 donation, the Simones can essentially feed a child for a year. Click here and donate—so little can do so much.