Goya Foods, a Hispanic-owned food company in Jersey City, announced on Thursday it has donated 220,000 pounds of food to Venezuela in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The donation is part of the company’s #GoyaGivesGlobal campaign.
“Our #GoyaGivesGlobal campaign extends our hand to our neighboring countries who are in desperate need of nourishing food and demonstrates Goya’s history of giving critical assistance to people who need it the most, not just here in the United States, but around the globe.  Venezuela has long suffered from shortages of food and we will do whatever we can to help,” Bob Unanue, president of Goya Foods, said.
In September 2019, the company said it donated 400,000 pounds to Venezuela in response to food shortages, of which only 180,000 pounds safely made it there.
“We thank Goya Foods, and its President Bob Unanue for this important humanitarian donation of food to the Venezuelan people. We thank them for their donation last year, we thank them for their donation this year and we look forward to their donation next year. It is a profoundly humane and social demonstration of how the international private sector can actively help to alleviate the pain and suffering of the people of Venezuela. This humanitarian support will be transparently channeled through the protocols that the Interim Government of President Juan Guaidó has coordinated with national and international agencies to address the emergency that affects millions of Venezuelan families,” Carlos Vecchio, ambassador of Venezuela, said.
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Goya has donated 2.5 million pounds of food and 20,000 masks.