About Us

In the Fall of 2001, Florida businessman Rod Khleif and his brother Ed Jacobs began to reflect on their many life's blessings. With the holiday season quickly approaching and their families needs met, they decided that rather than watch football games on Thanksgiving day, they would find a way to make a contribution of their abundance to families less fortunate. This inspired them to personally assemble and distribute 5 food baskets with their hopes that other families could also experience their love and celebration on Thanksgiving Day.

Thus, the Tiny Hands Foundation was founded. Under the subsidy of Rod Khleif with funding from his real estate endeavors, the organization has since fed thousands of families and their children in Sarasota. Khleif's formation of the annual Basket Brigade delivers food baskets containing all the ingredients for a traditional Thanksgiving Day Feast. Khleif recognized that by gifting families with a single holiday meal, the effects would go beyond measure. His personal motivation was to foster an exchange of generosity and gratitude between community members with far ranging demographics. This single act of kindness could inspire recipients to improve the quality of their lives as well as motivate the fortunate to assist those in their community who are in need.

The Tiny Hands Foundation’s Annual Basket Brigade creates awareness of single-parent households with multiple children who live below the poverty line.  Under the subsidy of Rod Khleif, the Foundation has doubled it’s annual distribution of holiday food baskets. With the assistance of his employees at Gulf Coast Management along with his family, friends and volunteers, the Foundation fed 800 families on November 18, 2006.

Success of the Annual Basket Brigade led to the formalization of “The Tiny Hands Foundation in September 2005. Since then, The Tiny Hands Foundation's core mission and initiatives have been developed towards improving the quality of children’s lives both locally and globally.  With the assistance of donors and volunteer’s nationwide, The Tiny Hands Foundation intends to develop empowerment programs for children that highlight health, finance, personal development and emotional mastery as methods for breaking through cycles of poverty.