Street Lamp Ministries making a difference

By Marlon Madden

Armed with their vinyl gloves, cooking utensils and pots of meat and other food items, volunteers with the charity Street Lamp Ministries can be seen in The City every Thursday providing a hot meal to those in need.

The organisation, which was formed 16 years ago by two women out of a need to share their Christmas meal with the less fortunate, has not allowed the pandemic to stop it from carrying out one of the most important duties that it was set up to do.

While Street Lamp Ministries has had to make some slight adjustments to its weekly routing including scrapping the interaction time with those who benefit from the meals and sharing the food at a location and then distributing instead of sharing on the spot, it has managed to maintain adequate numbers of volunteers each week and ample amount of food.

Barbados TODAY caught up with some of the Street Lamp Ministries volunteers recently as they worked feverishly to plate dozens of meal at the George Maynard Memorial hall of the Calvary Moravian Church in Roebuck Street before delivering them to the needy in Heroes Square.

Jerome Gittens is one of the volunteers with the charity. He explained that prior to the pandemic each volunteer would cook a meal at their home and then they met at Heroes Square where they then shared the food. When the pandemic started in March last year the group started to operate from one of the members’ home to pack the meals there and then take them to the location and distribute them while adhering to the COVID-19 protocols.

However, with the need for a bigger space to pack the lunches, they reached out to the Calvary Moravian Church and the leader agreed to allow the group to operate from the hall.

There are usually between 20 and 25 volunteers helping out on any given day, but since the pandemic, that number has been reduced to between 10 and 14 on a given week.

At the same time, Gittens said while the charity would usually cater to just over 130 people prior to the pandemic, there has been a decline of between 20 to 30 people each week because people were concerned about their safety.

He explained that the charity did not only provide a hot meal to the homeless and those in need, but would provide an opportunity for interaction, which has been put on pause as a result of the pandemic.

Gittens said there has seldom been a case when the food ran out, adding that in such a case the one or two individuals would not leave empty handed as they would receive a few tin items.

Bernadette Sarieux is one of the early volunteers with Street Lamp Ministries, having joined about three months after it was started. She recalled how the name came about after tossing around a few ideas.

“The one that stood out with everybody was the street lamp, where we shared food, which was the only light. Sometimes it was off and sometimes it was on. So we say street lamp ministries, and we wanted to associate God with it, so we added All for God,” said Sarieux.

She said it was one day while having Christmas dinner that a couple of friends decided to take their extra food to The City and feed anyone who they could find who was homeless.

That spilled over into the new year the following week, and before long, the less fortunate would realise that it was a weekly practice that they then looked forward
to experiencing.

Over the years, the group of volunteers would eat with the people they were feeding and listen to their stories. The charity would also provide items of clothing and toiletries from time to time. “As the time went by and lines started to get longer there wasn’t any food for us, but we didn’t mind. We were doing it because it was nice to share a meal with them and not just feed them,” said Sarieux.

Most of the members of Street Lamp Ministries are employed full-time, making it somewhat challenging for them to do as much as they would love to.

Gittens told Barbados TODAY while Barbadians are generally very generous people and would assist whenever there was a need, he believed the plight of the homeless needed more attention.

“It is a situation that should grab the attention of every Barbadian,” said Gittens.

“I don’t believe there is enough being done to address the issue. It is not just about giving food. Giving food is one thing but it is to really reach out and see how you can assist in a total rehabilitation, which some groups can do,” he said.

Gittens added “there is of course need for assistance professionally. We recognise a lot of them are on drugs, they have addictions, they have mental illnesses, and even the family unit, we find a lot of them are not able to go home to family”.

“It is about what support system we can provide for them outside of just giving them meals. There are other professionals that can come on board and offer their assistance.

There isn’t a lack of information out there in terms of how we can reach these people. They are full of resources including monetary that they can offer to a charity like ours and others to boost our programmes to assist the needy.

The government can also do a little bit more,” said Gittens.

It was one night while leaving work that Gittens, who was working in Bridgetown at the time, saw people gathered in Heroes Square and he was curious about what was happening. After circling in his vehicle a couple times he stopped and enquired what was happening.

“There were a few ladies there at the time and they told me what it was about, and that was in 2005. So from 2005 until now I have been there,” said Gittens. He said he was in the process of helping the organisation to become more visible as it seeks to bring greater awareness to the issue of homelessness in Barbados.

“More and more persons want to help,” he said, “so we are finding now that we have to move in that direction where we have to be more visible. So you may see some social media that we may be doing. We have a website that we are also working on. Persons do want to assist and they want to know how to reach us”.

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb