Top Left: With the poverty rate in 2013 reported as 12.5% based on $11.64 a day income, Mosseff House’s Dianne Bingham said hope lies in knowing that organisations like the Bahamas National Feeding Network are uniting those who assist with meeting the needs of the hungry, the poor, the troubled will allow all to share resources and ideas. Top Right: Bahamas National Feeding Network Executive Director Philip Smith, left, and Director Frank Crothers distributed $30,000 in food vouchers recently to assist those who feed the hungry, including Anna Murray of the South Andros Christian Centre. Bottom Left: More than 30 organisations came together during a luncheon at Luciano’s hosted by a donor for the Bahamas National Feeding Network November 6. The Network distributed $30,000 in food vouchers to assist those who help feed the hungry. Bottom Right: Bahamas National Feeding Network Director Frank Crothers who helped spearhead the movement to assist and unite those who feed the hungry shares a warm moment with Wendell Pratt, Remnant Tabernacle of Praise.
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Just under one year after it announced an ambitious goal to reach the
day when no Bahamian goes to bed hungry and to assist all those who
feed the needy, the Bahamas National Feeding Network today made good on
its promise, donating $30,000 in food vouchers to 30 organisations
during a touching ceremony at a luncheon paid for by an anonymous donor.
“This is such a proud moment, but it is just a taste of things
to come,” said Frank Crothers, a director. “Those of us who are blessed
are also charged with reaching out to those who have less and need more.
Today, we are surrounded by people who do that every day – they reach
out to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, provide shelter for the
homeless. And now, through the Bahamas National
Feeding Network, we are able to lessen their burden by providing food vouchers they may redeem at various locations.”
“The national poverty rate of The Bahamas in 2013 was stated as 12.5%,
up from 9.3% in 2001,” said Mosseff House’s Dianne Bingham, quoting an
official household survey that based its poverty level on $11.64 a day,
the money it calculated would be needed to cover basic essentials and a
low-cost diet. “Those numbers are startling when you consider that the
highest rate of unemployment – therefore the greatest probability of not
rising above the poverty level through legal means – is among those
under the age of 25 where the unemployment rate hovers at about 30.6%,
according to the same survey.”
According to Salvation Army
Divisional Commander Major Lester Ferguson, who also serves as a
director of the Feeding Network, the extent of poverty in The Bahamas is
far greater than most people realize. He sees the impact daily of
higher than normal unemployment -- the crowded households, poor health
care, hopelessness, despair. He’s also seen what a helping hand can
mean.
“Every week, dozens of people stand outside just waiting
for us to open the doors and by the time we are serving, we could have
up to 200 people – young, old, formerly employed, down on their luck –
they all come together because they know there is comfort, hot food and
spiritual companionship,” he said. “What the Feeding Network represents
is the opportunity to assist many more and to do so in a way that is
efficient, timely and so desperately needed.”
Philip Smith, a
former businessman who has devoted himself to feeding the hungry for
nearly a decade, is the hands-on, day-to-day manager of the Feeding
Network.
“I have seen people on benches, asleep on curbs, even in
graveyards and I have seen the extent and the pain of hunger in this
country,” said Smith. “It isn’t pretty and if you have never gone to bed
hungry, you don’t know how it feels. Hunger hurts. We want to stop that
hurt and find a way to feed every single person in The Bahamas,
starting with every single person in New Providence, then spreading to
the Family Islands but we cannot do this alone. That is why we will be
calling on everyone to donate during Bahamas National Feeding Network
Dollar Day later this month and we will have coin collection boxes for
one week in December in participating stores. We will be doing school
talks asking children to contribute spare coins for one day to help feed
the hungry. This is a national effort and we pledge to provide a
national solution because in a country of riches like The Bahamas, no
one should have to go to bed hungry.”
Organisations receiving
vouchers included Bahamas Red Cross, Bethel Baptist Church, Brea Seventh
Day Adventist, Calvary Bible Church, Club Restoration, Cornerstone
Zion Ministries/Cornerstone Haitian Church/Cornerstone Partners of Hope,
Ebenezer Methodist Church, Eljay's Hilltop Cottage Ministries, Family
of Faith Ministry, Great Commission Ministries Intl., Judea Baptist
Church, Kingdom Mercy Ministries, Kingdom Ambassadors World Outreach
Ministries, Lakeview Church of God, Mosseff House, New Bethany Baptist
Cathedral, New Life Restoration Ministries, New Mount Zion Missionary
Church, Operation SOLD, Remnant Tabernacle of Praise, Sanctuary of the
Redeem, Society of St. Vincent DePaul, Solid Rock Church, South Andros
Christian Center, The Anglican Diocese, The Salvation Army and Youth for
God Through Christ.