Photos: Courtesy of Lend a Hand Bahamas
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Meeting their $200,000 pledge to support local non-profit organizations providing food assistance to communities hit hardest by the impacts of COVID-19, Lyford Cay Foundations has made two more $25,000 donations to Lend a Hand Bahamas and Hands for Hunger, ensuring that thousands of families can receive food during a critical time.
As the world adjusts to the new reality of a pandemic, so too do organizations meeting their needs—for both Lend a Hand Bahamas and Hands for Hunger, this means shifting their operations to handle record unemployment and food assistance requests.
At Hands for Hunger, which primarily used a food rescue model to redistribute food that would otherwise be discarded from hotels and restaurants to various agencies that feed communities, the hit sustained by the tourism sector has seen food production from their major donors vanish or become greatly reduced. With thousands of new requests for food assistance, Hands for Hunger not only need to take on purchasing perishable items themselves but have also launched a food voucher programme through the digital wallet application Kanoo which to date has assisted more than 1,500 families.
“As a team we have been trying to figure out new and creative ways to address food insecurity issues because at the end of the day it is still our mantra that no one goes hungry,” says Hands for Hunger Multimedia Manager Aarone Sargent. “This donation from Lyford Cay Foundations helps to strengthen our operations sso we can continue to do our work.”
Lend a Hand Bahamas, which primarily offers educational programming to socio-economic disadvantaged Bahamians in the Grant's Town area of Nassau through a community center, has shifted their operations as social distancing prevented gathering at the community center and the appeal for food assistance during the pandemic increased from residents and donors alike. In two months, they have expanded their reach to provide weekly food support to over 2,000 individuals in the Adelaide, Grant’s Town, Gambier, and Mt. Pleasant areas of the island. In the meantime, they are planning longer-term entrepreneurial and community development initiatives to strengthen and protect Bahamians during potential future crises.
“Food is seen as a critical need now because its very hard to talk to families about how to enhance their lives or think long-term when they can’t feed themselves to survive, says Lucas Metropulos, Chairman of the Board for Lend a Hand Bahamas. “For us it’s a piece of the plan to build resiliency into these communities we serve— we are trying to find, for people affected by this pandemic, how they can get back to where they were but even better.”
Indeed both Lend a Hand Bahamas and Hands for Hunger have received Community Grants before to support their initiatives, and Lyford Cay Foundations is proud to continue to back these organizations as they work to build a more prosperous Bahamas though future opportunities.
“The continued extreme generosity and support by Lyford Cay Foundations allows projects like ours off the ground—they were one of the earliest supports of our educational programming, and have been there every step of the way since, through providing relief during Hurricane Dorian recovery and now food assistance during a pandemic,” says Lucas. “To see a group of people come forward and pool resources together into community investments and needs, that is a huge asset to the country.”
