At Church | Published 2011/03/18

Executive Dennis Perry

By Wojtek K
‘Operation Food for Life’

Dennis Perry has been pronounced clinically dead three times in his life, but I can assure you he is alive and well.  And even though he is 61, he says he is only 21 on the inside.
He worked with health food enterprises for 36 years in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.
In 1999, he returned to Australia and helped the Seventh-day Adventist owned Sanitarium Health Food Company to gain market leadership in the South Pacific.

But it was whilst he was visiting Tonga that he was confronted by real poverty for the first time. He saw families living on the local rubbish dump, feeding off scraps.
So he started ‘Sanitarium - Operation Food for Life’, which over the last nine years has fed 450,000 people in the Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Kiribati and Papua New Guinea.

Dennis Perry:

  • Never completed formal education due to health issues.
  • 36 years denominational employment with Sanitarium Health Foods
  •  Answered Gods calling to practical ministry and stepped onto a rubbish dump  in Tonga 12 years ago to feed the impoverished.
  •  Thus Operation Food For Life was born. And is so doing I was born again
  • I devote all my time and passion  to help the "least of these" and consider it a profound honour to walk in Jesus footsteps

Operation Food for Life was founded in 1997, and formally accredited as a registered charity in 2011. Our guiding principles are simply found in Matthew 24 v 35 &36.

This is our program:

  • For I was hungry and you fed me..........We feed thousands each year in Port Moresby,PNG,many who would die of physical  starvation and  thirst without our intervention.
  • I was sick and you came...........We regularly purchase food and feed patients dying of Aids,both women and children in Port Moresby hospital
  • I was in prison and you visited....We  regularly  feed prisoners incarcerated in prison
  • I was naked and you clothed me......We cloth the naked,who live on the  rubbish dump,350 families,
  • I was a stranger and you invited me in.........We change peoples lives by providing basic lifestyle equipment to the physically and mentally challenged eg wheelchairs crutches ect. Subject to availabilty


We helped commence a school for children who live on a rubbish dump and continue to help the school today.
We focus and go where Jesus would go.T hat is ministering to the poorest of the poor. We go into areas where other like minded organisations would stop at the gates or do because of the confronting nature of many of the environments we go.

Amongst these include Baruni Rubbish dump where uop to 300 families live on 24 hours a day. They cannot grow food there or have access to water.Every day is a matter of survival.
All they can hope for is some food scraps dumped on the tip.And hope we will be visiting today to feed  and cloth the community. Give them hope, dignity, lift them up, and above all share the love of Jesus through our actions.

Four yeas ago over 100 people were dying of starvation and thirst a year. We have reduced those fatalities to 20 per year. In all we do it is Christianity in action. Being walking advertisements for Jesus!
We have recently commenced a monthly sabbath school on the garbage dump for this community. They cannot come to us...we come to them.

You cannot begin to imagine feeding hundreds of people dying of aids in hospital every year .Thats what we do! Most have never heard of Jesus.We must offer salvation through Jesus to our brothers and sisters as we feed and minister to their basic needs.

We have a 5 minute devotional plus a gospel group sings uplifting hymns while we feed them. We minister to "the least of these" in almost everything we do.

Our budget....2 fish and a loaf of bread mixed with a generous portion of faith....we are not backed by any Major company. We purchase all our food. We have been blessed by a few faithful partners who send  small financial gifts to help us,which are tax deductible

There are no borders in our ministry. We will involve the community in volunteering for us.In the community,involving the community dedicating all we do to Jesus. Not I but Christ!

We annually feed over 20,000 per year.Its not a shotgun approach.we identify area in the community we can regularly go and lift them............... to heaven.

How do you put what we do into words. How can i convey to you the unhealthy, and in some cases, dangerous areas we go into  and share so many miracles we experience over 12 years. How can I convey the odour of rotting garbage ,smoke billowing 24 hours a day from the Rubbish dump community. The small of rotting flesh, tears of all of us as we witness our brothers and sisters dying of aids......Simply cant!!!

What we do to a degree can be summed up on our motto emblazed of our uniforms.........Our Passion is Compassion Witnessed by our Actions!

The Executive of Operation food For Life includes myself, Rodney Woolley - Vice President and David Wolley - Secretary/Treasurer. All have a hear for people and a passion for the Operation Food For life Ministry.


Deniss is  currently working with the World Health Organisation in PNG.

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE TOO!!!

Comments