U.N. distributes food to throngs of poor in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Hundreds of Haitians stood in long lines Saturday, just as others had walked for hours throughout the week to receive the U.N. and regional food aid pouring into the country after a spate of deadly riots.

But amid the tenuous calm, aid groups say they are just buying time — and long-term solutions seem remote in the desperately poor nation.

“The beans might last four days,” said Jervais Rodman, an unemployed carpenter with three children who emerged from a churchyard Friday with small bags of food. “The rice will be gone as soon as I get home.”

Rodman was one of the lucky ones. Many others arrived after the distribution centers had run out.

Haitian officials handed out 1,000 bags of U.N.-bought food Saturday in Cite Soleil, a huge seaside slum on the eastern edge of the capital. Though aid was limited to women over age 57 and the handicapped, at least 50 people who waited in line were turned away.

More than half of Haiti’s nearly 9 million people live on less than $2 a day, and the rise in food prices has deepened the country’s misery.

Market stalls are piled with papayas and small bags of pasta, even in poor areas. But vast numbers of people simply lack money to buy them because global food and commodity prices have risen 40 percent over the past year.