As hundreds of New Providence residents and businesses grappled with power outages over the weekend, food drives of one of the largest charities in the country were cut in half. The Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) said a fire at its Blue Hills Power Station triggered the "total system shutdown" 2 p.m. Friday.
Hands For Hunger Communications Manager Anna Bancroft said the organization typically collects food from five to 10 companies on Fridays. Bancroft said several of those donors were not open when Hands for Hunger made its rounds that afternoon. A shortage of food donations impacted food drives that would normally assist thousands of struggling Bahamians. However, Bahamas Food Services (BFS), Hands for Hunger's largest annual donor, required "food rescue assistance" as its perishable goods ran the risk of spoiling without working freezers.
According to Bancroft, BFS donated pallets of frozen goods, including concentrated juices, ice cream, whole hams and turkeys.
"We were extremely grateful for BFS' quick action and initiative to donate the items before spoilage," Bancroft told The Nassau Guardian.
"The next logistical challenge of our food rescue operation was determining which of our 14 recipient agency partners had power to safely store or repurpose the food in a timely manor. It was determined that Great Commission Ministries, Bahamas Association for Social Health, The Haven, and Elizabeth Estates Children's Home were able to accommodate the influx of frozen items distributed, although notably, we would have been able to serve double this amount of agencies on any given weekend."
Bancroft was asked whether BFS' donations could be considered a silver lining of the island-wide outage.
"We believe, and certainly feel supported in this statement by our recipient agency partners," she said. "Any amount of high quality, surplus food rescued and redistributed into the communities that need it most is a silver lining for the estimated 43,000 Bahamians living below the poverty line, [who are] facing chronic hunger and food insecurity every day."
Hands for Hunger's food rescue efforts continued yesterday as BFS donated several more pallets of water, canned cream and sodas. These were distributed to several of Hands for Hunger's recipient outreach agencies.
The organization's partnering outreach agencies, which collectively serve around 10,000 meals per week, include Teen Challenge, Bethel Baptist Church, Providing Access To Continued Education, The Bahamas AIDS Foundation, among many others.
"Other consistent food donors who were quick to take action after the power outages, include Bahamas Bakery Services and Balduccino Fine Foods," Bancroft added.
As Hands for Hunger distributed more than 30 gallons of water and several cases of sodas to Great Commission Ministries yesterday, the organization's manager, Maxine Bethel, said she was very thankful. Bethel said Great Commission Ministries was able to prepare enough food on Friday to provide meals on Saturday and Sunday for hundreds of people in need.
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