More healthy food for less fortunate

Members of the vulnerable community who benefit from feeding programmes will have some more fruits and vegetables added to their diet in the coming days.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have donated fresh fruits and produce to the Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness and the Street Lamp Ministries, both non-profit organisations that cater to the needs of the less fortunate, including feeding them.

The handover took place today at the Animal Nutrition Unit, Pine, St Michael, where Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture Peter Phillips said the initiative is one of the projects in which his Ministry and the FAO are working on together.

He said that next Tuesday, the two entities will also launch a joint programme entitled, Building Effective Resilience for Human Security in the Caribbean Countries: the Imperative of Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in a strengthened Agriculture (and related Small Agri-Fisheries Business Sector).

“We at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security consider the sharing of produce and planting material with the public – including institutions such as school, churches, NGOs and individuals – as being vital to our mandate to advance interest in agriculture and to promote national food and nutrition security. However, it does not stop there. The Ministry is also active in lending technical assistance through its extension services to numerous cases,” Phillips said.

FAO’s Plant and Protection Officer, Vyju Lopez, said the donation coincided with Word Food Day celebrations, themed Grow, nourish, sustain. Together. Our actions are our future. Word Food Day 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the FAO, which was founded just days after the United Nations was established.

Lopez noted that more than two billion people do not have regular access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food, while at the same time, the global population is expected to reach almost ten billion by 2050.

“Right here in Barbados, we see an increased number of persons who are vulnerable and reliant on organisations like these two stellar ones we have here today – the Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness and Street Lamp Ministries. Mr Kemar Saffrey and Mr Jerome Gittens, we are truly humbled and impressed by your dedication, commitment and hard work in providing shelter, care and hot, nutritious meals to some of those who have fallen on hard times. What you are essentially doing is providing a solution to the issues of hunger and lack of access to healthy diets for all,” Lopez said.

While extending gratitude to the contributors for the donations, both Saffrey and Gittens noted that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they have noticed an increase in the number of persons coming forward for meals in recent months.

Saffrey said he was always happy to receive donations of food items to allow the organisation to continue its work.

“Feeding is a major part of what we do. It is not all that we do, but it is a major component of what we do. If you want clients to turn up, feed them, and that is a part of helping them to rehabilitate and reintegrate and also for us to connect with them to be able to negotiate processes for them to be able to get off the streets,” he said.

“So this is always good and I am hoping that it is a partnership that we can continue with.”

Meanwhile, Gittens said: “We at Street Lamp are very humbled, happy. We are excited to be a part of what is happening here. It is something that we would want to extend beyond today. I can see that the food that is here will probably last between one to two weeks.”

Street Lamp Ministries will celebrate 18 years of providing hot meals, clothing and other assistance to the less fortunate. Every Thursday night, the organisation feeds between 100 and 120 persons in The City. (AH)