NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Nearly 100,000 individuals who seek food assistance will be impacted this year due to the lack of financial support, according to Bahamas Food Network officials.
Nicolette Archer, assistant manager at the Bahamas Food Network, said that although The Bahamas remains without a resilience effort program, the NGO is dedicated to ensuring no one goes to bed hungry.
Archer said: “Every month we estimated about 100,000 persons we distribute meals to and there are times when persons give what they brought for lunch to help those in need.”
“We recognize we need more to continue doing what we need to do. Unless Bahamians and other organization sponsors step up, we have to pull back.”
According to the Global Food Crisis report, 2023 is expected to be another year of “extreme jeopardy” for families struggling to provide food for themselves.
Due to the lack of resilience activity initiatives, “high fertilizer prices could turn the current food affordability crisis into a food availability crisis, with the production of maize, rice, soybean, and wheat all falling in 2022,” the report read.
Just last month, Hellmann’s announced it was pulling its original mayonnaise from shelves in South Africa due to high inflation import costs.
In attempts to facilitate the global prices of food, CEO of Supervalue Rupert Roberts said his team is making great efforts to import alternative brands for customers.
Roberts reported that his buying department, which he described as his research team, has been scrambling to source essential items for customers for a while.
“We have been scrambling for bathroom tissue again,” he revealed to EyeWitness News.
Since the country is in constant economic limbo, he asserted that predicting cost prices are difficult, even for him, but he intends to provide items that are more affordable.
He indicated that the company has found a slight solution to inflation, however, it won’t be an easy transition as they require approval from price control to import various brands.
Despite the economic challenges, Distribution Manager of Bahamas Food Network Rucina Ferguson-Scully said: “We have the means to feed everyone, but what happens is food [in the fridge] ends up being discarded due to it being spoiled.”
She added that while the NGO partnered with the government during the pandemic, people are still in need of jobs and seeking food.
She revealed that individuals with homes still were vulnerable since most of their income goes to landlords due to the pandemic.
As a result, Ferguson-Scully said: “Those of us who have, need to share.”
Thousands of bahamians would not need food or any kind of government assistance if government had not forcefully shut down business’s and penalize bahamians that would not follow that catastrophicly destroyed business jobs and the economy.