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4,000 more seek help from govt after food aid ends

Wed, Oct 6th 2021, 08:42 AM
Community/Charity Food/Cooking Tribune Stories

SOCIAL Services and Urban Development Minister Obie Wilchcombe said yesterday that some 4,000 Bahamians who were receiving assistance from the government's national food distribution programme have now been added to his ministry's aid list since the food initiative ended.

According to Mr Wilchcombe, those numbers are expected to increase in the coming days as some 18,000 households were being assisted in the programme in its final phase.
#To meet the demand, he said officials are working to introduce a new food programme to replace the former one, which officially ended earlier this week.
# “I think we’re inheriting about 4,000 I’m being told, but I expect the number to increase but we’re putting together a programme that would be systemic in that nobody would be left out,” he said before going to a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. “This 4,000 who we’re inheriting from the programme…that’s in addition to what we’re providing already.”
# Asked yesterday if the social agency is prepared to handle the influx, Mr Wilchcombe suggested that his ministry will have to be resourceful to meet the high demand.
# He also warned there will be budget cuts in certain areas to accommodate key social assistance initiatives.
# “We’re going to have to find ways to do it,” he said. “The reality is that the Bahamians are hurting. We’re not going to leave anybody behind. We’re going to go after taking care of the Bahamian people. We have to cut some costs (in) some places and in fact, we discovered that we’re renting buildings and we’re not even into the building at Social Services.
# “We’ve been renting since 2018 facilities that’s costing millions of dollars and we’re not in the building so you know we got to cut back. We’re going to look at exactly what’s going on and we’re going to fix it, but no Bahamian is going to be left behind in what we’re trying to do.”
# The national food distribution programme was one of several initiatives formed by the Minnis administration in 2020 to assist vulnerable Bahamians affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Mr Wilchcombe, those numbers are expected to increase in the coming days as some 18,000 households were being assisted in the programme in its final phase.

To meet the demand, he said officials are working to introduce a new food programme to replace the former one, which officially ended earlier this week.

“I think we’re inheriting about 4,000 I’m being told, but I expect the number to increase but we’re putting together a programme that would be systemic in that nobody would be left out,” he said before going to a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

“This 4,000 who we’re inheriting from the programme…that’s in addition to what we’re providing already.”

Asked yesterday if the social agency is prepared to handle the influx, Mr Wilchcombe suggested that his ministry will have to be resourceful to meet the high demand.

He also warned there will be budget cuts in certain areas to accommodate key social assistance initiatives.

“We’re going to have to find ways to do it,” he said. “The reality is that the Bahamians are hurting. We’re not going to leave anybody behind. We’re going to go after taking care of the Bahamian people. We have to cut some costs (in) some places and in fact, we discovered that we’re renting buildings and we’re not even into the building at Social Services.

“We’ve been renting since 2018 facilities that’s costing millions of dollars and we’re not in the building so you know we got to cut back. We’re going to look at exactly what’s going on and we’re going to fix it, but no Bahamian is going to be left behind in what we’re trying to do.”

The national food distribution programme was one of several initiatives formed by the Minnis administration in 2020 to assist vulnerable Bahamians affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

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