NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The National Food Distribution Program has seen a significant uptick in new registrations for people requesting food assistance, with more than 2,700 households registering in just 24-hours.
In an interview with Eyewitness News, the task force’s chairman Susan Larson advised that it was expected registration would top 3,000 by the end of the day.
Larson noted that number of households now seeking food assistance represents nearly 140,000 people.
The prime minister announced a complete lockdown in New Providence and extended Grand Bahama’s lockdown for another week.
The new measures restricted all movement and further restricts essential services, including grocery stores, water depots, and pharmacies from operating.
However, just before 5 pm today the prime minister announced a turnaround of the full lockdown imposed in New Providence, allowing food stores and other essential services to open tomorrow.
“The program was never designed to be an on-demand food assistance program,” Larson said.
“There’s a certain number of days that are needed to accommodate new registrants, order the product for an increased number of recipients, package that up and get it distributed, but that takes a few days.
“You really can’t do that in just a 24-hour turnaround.
“This uptick has certainly introduced a whole new number into our preparation needs, that we need several days to accommodate and respond to.”
The rollback of the measures came after bitter protests earlier today among dozens of people who gathered near Windsor Park on East Street to march onto Bay Street in protest of the seven-day lockdown.
Scores of people were arrested and detained, leading to a standoff between officers and residents of the area.
The prime minister said the reversal was due to public feedback and the development of a weather system that could potentially impact the country by the weekend.
Yesterday, Larson urged Bahamians and residents to understand that the pandemic has been an unprecedented challenge for teh country and for a task force like the National Food Distribution Task Force, which relies on private-public partnership.
“We are pulling out every creative idea that we can come up with to figure out how we are to increase outreach and reduce wait times,” she said.
“We are constantly reevaluating how much value we can pack into each food parcel for as little money as possible.
“If we are successful in doing that then we can cram more parcels in the package.”
Responding to criticisms circulating of the task force’s food packages and distribution process, Larson noted that while the parcels may not be luxurious, they were designed to help the most vulnerable in the country.
“They provide protein vegetables and starches as the basis of meals, and they’ve also been designed for the most vulnerable in our communities, many of whom do not have refrigerators, they do not have electricity and they struggle at a level that is likely foreign to a good part of the population.”
She asked for constructive comments on how the food task can improve its work, instead of being negative criticisms.
Last week the prime minister announced that the task force will move to restructure aid into three categories: most, moderately and least vulnerable; with assistance to be distributed weekly, bi-weekly, and once a month, respectively.
