The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

SOME 9,000 people in Abaco have recently appealed to Idea Relief, a Bahamian non-profit organisation, for food assistance.

A representative from the organisation revealed the figure yesterday.

This comes after the group's co-founder told The Tribune last month that 4,000 people in Abaco were in "dire need" of food after COVID-19 disrupted their food chain supply.

Noting the numbers have increased "exponentially" since then, IDEA Relief co-founder Will Tomlinson said: "Back last month, when that article come out, we were still at the stage of still expecting 4,000 people going through vulnerability…We have actually seen that exponentially increase and we are at 9,000 people a week who we are currently dealing with. This week, we had 2,984 households with just under 9,000 people in them.

"So, it definitely increased a lot and we have found in the last two weeks alone, that over 20 percent, we had a 20 percent increase due to the lockdown and people that haven't been able to return since March are returning from the out islands and Nassau. So that number has definitely increased but doubled really."

He also said "in the last 12 weeks", over $700,000 worth of food from local distributors was bought and distributed to over 90,000 people in Abaco.

His comments came during a virtual press conference hosted by the National Food Taskforce Committee, where it was also revealed that over 70,00 people in the country have benefitted so far from the government's national food distribution programme, which was launched earlier this month.

Speaking on the matter yesterday, the committee's chairman Susan Larson said "in the first 20 days of June", more than 76,000 people were supplied with either food parcels or meal vouchers after the government donated funds, amounting to nearly one million dollars, to the task force.

Noting the move as a major help to the group's work, she said: "When the government injects their money, the task force can ramp up at a much more rapid pace and this is what started to happen when government funds were injected into the work of the task force in the beginning of June.

"They've already committed $900,000 to the task force that has directly helped over 76,000 people in just in the first 20 days of June. These are the results for just that additional outreach…and that's in addition to the 137,000 plus people that were helped in April and May (prior to the government's feeding programme)."

The food initiative, which is jointly funded by the government and the private sector, aims to provide emergency food assistance for vulnerable Bahamians and residents affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

To facilitate the programme, the government appointed a National Food Distribution Task Force in April.

The committee is divided across The Bahamas into nine zones - five in New Providence, one in Grand Bahama, Eleuthera, Abaco, and northern Family Islands, and the southern Family Islands.

Each zone has been assigned a lead NGO, who is also partnering with other groups to maximise outreach. At yesterday's press conference, several NGO representatives spoke on the progress that has been made thus far in their respective areas.

Chief operating officer from ONE Eleuthera Foundation, James Richard said: "In the past week, through our partners, we distributed 1,200 parcels and 240 vouchers. That number is certainly going to increase as we find more and more people registering with the organisation."

Executive director for Hands for Hunger, Keisha Ellis added: "This public/private partnership has really been able to help us propel our operations moving forward so once we started receiving the cash from the government through the task force, we were able to ramp up immediately. So, in addition to our regular work, we've taken on 3,000 people so we've distributed food packages or vouchers to about 3,000 people in the past two weeks and we're looking to double that."

The group has been mandated to deliver food assistance for 12 weeks, from June 1 to August 3.

However, Mrs Larson said yesterday she anticipates that the programme will continue beyond the 12-week deadline as there is still much uncertainty surrounding COVID-19's impact in the country.

She said: "The whole impact of COVID on our economy and on our livelihood is very real and what rate the economy will recover and people will get back to the levels of food securities they had previously due to COVID and previously to Dorian is not a known figure."

"What we do every week is we analyse what is going on and we certainly aren't going to suddenly end the programme on August 31st and the programme right now has been defined by the government as the twelve-week programme. But I have every indication that they will review the data and continue the programme as the conditions are on the ground."

Mrs Larson also said officials will be creating an online database rapidbahamas.com, which launches today. It is meant to maximise "the efficiency and effectiveness" of the task force.

The registration programme, she said, will also allow for officials to record important information of its applicants.

"It's going to help us understand who is being helped where. It will prevent double dipping and it will help us maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of the task force and all of that together, will help us stretch and maximise the available funding that the task force is working with," she said.

"We are asking head of households to register at rapidbahamas.com (and) an email will be sent assigning that person to a designated zone."