I heartily agree with @iamthemob about Kiva.org and I’m more than happy to put in an additional plug for one of my favorite organizations. I’ve been lending the same $300 dollars through Kiva for about two years now, though it’s a little less than that now because sometimes I donate a percentage of that initial $300 to the organization so it can continue to support itself.
Sending food directly to someone in another country can be problematic to begin with, for a number of reasons, as people have already mentioned. Additionally, in some of the poorest countries there can be a fair amount corruption and there’s no way to be certain that the package, the food, will actually get to the people you send it to.
There’s also the whole “Give a man a fish he eats for a day; teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime” thing to think about here. An organization like Kiva allows small business people, entrepeneurs and cooperatives to open new businesses or expand existing ones. It’s amazing how far one or two or three hundred dollars can go in some parts of the world. For example, someone might need to borrow $150 to buy another sewing machine for a seamstress shop. She might be able to double the income of her business and hire another worker who can then better support her family. And, if you wanted to help the woman get her sewing machine you can lend as little as $25 dollars because other Kiva members will lend $25 or more until she’s got the $150. Then when you’re paid back you can lend the $25 dollars to someone else. How much would it cost just in postage to ship a package food overseas?
And you can join lending teams to increase your impact and express an affinity. It’s kind of interesting to look at some of those. I think many people on fluther would be quite pleased to know that the Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious Kiva lending team is whooping the Kiva Christians lending team’s butt. :-) The atheists are beating them soundly with a total loan amount of $2,843,150 to the Christians’ mere $1,725,000. Not Christian bashing; just stating the facts here, just saying that this round goes to the atheists.