Three hundred and fifteen less fortunate persons received an early Christmas luncheon today, thanks to the generosity of a business entity, but even then, there were not enough meals to meet the high demand.
Two hundred and fifty persons collected their packaged traditional Christmas meal provided by Massy Distribution from members of that company who volunteered their time to distribute the meals today at the Salvation Army Headquarters, Reed Street in The City.
An additional 65 persons who benefit from the Army’s Meals on Wheels programme, were also provided with the Christmas lunch from Massy.
The army’s Business Development Manager Sherma Evelyn told Barbados TODAY that the charitable organisation was pleased that Massy has once again provided the Christmas meals. She said, in light of an increasing number of Barbadians struggling to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, there were more persons wishing to access the Christmas meals than the 250 persons who collected their packages today via a ticketing system.
“We don’t even have enough to give out so we basically do 250 tickets and that doesn’t include our meals on wheels beneficiaries. Before our meals on wheels used to have about 30 persons, but now we have escalated to 65 persons.
“We may not meet everybody that will come. Some people did not have tickets yet and we don’t have any more tickets to give out. As you can see, the need is great and it’s people of all walks of life who come to be assisted,” Evelyn said.
Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of Massy Distribution Jared Wright who was leading the team, said Massy saw it as its responsibility to continue its partnership with the Salvation Army to assist those in need. He said that even though times are difficult, Massy Distribution will continue to play its role as a responsible corporate citizen.
“Everything has been a bit more difficult because of the pandemic, but we recognize that even though things would not have been as robust as we would like across the board, this is one of the things that we wanted to make sure that we continue to do,” Wright said.
Wright said that those staff members who volunteered to share and distribute the food followed the COVID-19 protocols and have all received a rapid COVID-19 test which showed negative results, before they were allowed to participate in the outreach programme. (AH)
