The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

A LOCAL feeding organisation says the current period of inflation as well as the reintroduction of value added tax on breadbasket items has increased its operational costs.

Bahamas Feeding Network executive director Lester Ferguson told reporters his organisation has seen a 12 to 15 percent jump in food costs compared to pre-pandemic periods.

He spoke to reporters after a ceremony celebrating the BFN’s new building in the Fox Hill community, which is a few doors away from their previous location.

He was asked how much the organisation’s food bill had increased after VAT was reintroduced on breadbasket items.

“I know that each month we spend, we provide at least, and this is just from purchases and not the in-kind, at least over $125,000 a month. If we compare that with what we did before the pandemic, we’re probably seeing anywhere from (a) 12 to 15 percent increase over that amount.”

Asked if inflation is affecting BFN’s overall operations, he said: “Oh, absolutely.”

He explained: “Now, we have to pay VAT on breadbasket items. So that has certainly impacted our bottomline. Of course, the price of food has gone up because of shipping and other factors. So it cost us more. It costs more to provide the kind of food resources.

“Because we’re now a network, we’re able to get better pricing because we’re buying in bulk for all of these organisations so we can levy some better pricing but certainly our food bill has gone up and that certainly because of the impact of the pandemic on our economy and, of course, now having to pay VAT on (bread)basket items … it means that there’s another 10 percent that we have to find.”

The opposition Free National Movement has repeatedly called on the government to repeal VAT on breadbasket items. These goods were zero-rated under the Minnis administration, however the tax was reimposed on them in January when the Davis administration reduced VAT from 12 percent to 10 percent across the board with few exemptions.

This week, Super Value’s president Rupert Roberts backed the calls for VAT’s removal from breadbasket items as a means to ease the burden soaring inflation has imposed on hard-pressed consumers still struggling to recover from COVID-19’s fall-out.

Yesterday, the BFN executive director said the need for food is not as acute as it was during the early days of the pandemic yet there are still people who struggle.

“We find, and the comments that we get back from our feeding partners because we engage with them on a regular basis, is that there are people coming to them for assistance, more people coming for food. Whereas it looks as if economically we’re beginning to rebound and that might be so in a number of ways for a number of sectors, there are still people who struggle.”

Asked what the need is two years into the pandemic, he said: “Not as acute as it was because, of course, at that time many people were unemployed and we still have people who struggle to make ends meet. Today when we serve or when we provide resources to our partner feeding programmes, we provide about 60,000 meals a month. So the need is still real. Like I said before the pandemic it became more acute during the pandemic. Now that we’re kinda getting back to some regularity in terms of people going back to work, (but) for many the need still exists.”

Meanwhile, Mr Ferguson noted the organisation has been settling in the new location for the last month and is tweaking its operations.

“Like was said earlier we’re revisiting, going back to the model of being able to directly support other feeding programmes in the communities in New Providence. Of course, we make available food, food parcels from our location here to individuals but our primary focus really is to help the other organisations. So somebody who lives in, for example in one of the communities in Bain Town or out Carmichael Road, they don’t have to come here. They can go to one of the locations closer to them in order to access food supplies.”