The food distribution program organized in quake-hit Haiti by United Nations agency the World Food Program (WFP) has reached 850,000 people, WFP spokesman Marcus Prior told Xinhua on Tuesday.

"We distributed to 112,000 on the first day and 212 by the end of Monday," Prior said over telephone. "We had 14 sites open Tuesday, up from 12 yesterday," he said.

The WFP is distributing 25 kilogram bags of rice to female heads of households across Port-au-Prince, via a 15-day program that began Sunday. The program aims to reach 2 million people during two weeks.

Haiti was hit by an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale on January 12 which killed 170,000 according to government estimates, and also wrecked infrastructure making it impossible for many residents to earn money to buy food. In the 18 days from the earthquake to the start of the expanded program, the WFP reached 650,000 people, or 200,000 less than it has reached this week alone.

Prior said that the WFP is conducting assessments of vulnerable groups alongside the distribution and will use the sites established during this 15-day period, to make more targeted deliveries to those who most need food beginning in the latter half of February.

The WFP originally planned to have 16 sites distributing across Port-au-Prince, but two in the city's roughest neighborhood, Cite Soleil, did not open because secure distribution could not be guaranteed. Prior said the WFP forecasts these will open on Thursday.

During a visit to a distribution site in Bois Neuf, a calmer section of Cite Soliel, on the grounds of the Haitian Athletics Sports Training Center, a Xinhua reporter witnessed the distribution of bags of rice comparatively smoothly, thanks to the cooperation of four groups of actors: World Food Program officials, workers from non government organization Samaritan's Purse, and soldiers from the Jordanian army and from US army unit the 82nd airborne.

One of the recipients, primary schoolteacher Belvue Monhonneur told Xinhua that she had received a ticket from a distribution agent because of her large family: two parents and eight children. She had not worked since Jan. 12 and was now having trouble buying food.

She also reported that people in the area had been victim of a fraud. A counterfeiter had printed a large number of pink tickets and sold them for 10 gourds (27 US cents) telling buyers that the white tickets that WFP agents were distributing were fake. The voucher system has been a staple of WFP distribution management for 20 years, but it is rarely used in an urban setting.

The all-female crowd was noisy, with one recipient shouting "Take me with you to Miami, white boy!" at the US soldiers. However, order was maintained throughout, a contrast to some distributions seen a week earlier, when Brazilian and Uruguayan forces saw their distributions turn into free-for-all battles.

(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2010)