Some 350 persons were the recipients yesterday in the Bahamas Feeding Network and AML Foods Limited 2nd Annual Feed 5,000 campaign in New Providence and Grand Bahama.
The food was distributed in the parking lot of Solomon’s at Yamacraw.
Hunger is said to be a silent struggle for many in The Bahamas. It’s estimated that one in six Bahamians are chronically hungry. The packages included food a family would need to make a Christmas dinner.
“At AML, one of the areas of advocacy for us is helping to eliminate hunger and having a relationship with Bahamas Feeding Network we realize that there are so many people in our community who don’t have the basic necessities just to have a meal every day. So, we definitely felt that as an organization in the food industry, it’s basically our responsibility to help,” said President of Marketing Renee Bastian.
Last year’s drive was a success with raising $64,000. This year drive is proving to be one as well, according to Executive Director of Bahamas Feeding Network Phillip Smith.
“This year we have raised $83,000. We will distribute about 2,100 parcels of food. We’ll do that between Nassau and Grand Bahama. A total of some 64 organizations make up The Bahamas Feeding Network. These organization consists of churches, feeding centers, and soup kitchens,” explained Smith.
The extra hands came from charities affiliated with the organizations in partnership. For one participant, Lily-Mae Gaydem, helping during this time of the year means a lot.
“Seeing that I’m retired person, I do whatever I can help around. When I first retired, I just put on jeans and a polo shirt tennis and walk through the short ends. But I can’t do too much walking now because I had to get a pacemaker. I had to slow down. But, I just love it,” explained Gaydem.
Gaydem added that typically one person would pick up food for a group of people the neighbourhood they live in .
Throughout the year, there are other food drives the Food Networking Services has. This one in particular was 6 weeks in the making.
