Bahamas Update: Three million meals, looking to the future
It’s been five months since Hurricane Dorian, the most devastating storm to ever hit The Bahamas, made landfall, and our Chef Relief Team has served our 3 millionth meal. Since early September we have been distributing hot meals to shelters, hospitals, and community centers in Nassau as well as to communities around Abaco and Freeport – over 250 locations in all – helping people in need as they recover from the aftermath of the storm.
It takes a huge team to prepare and serve 3 million meals, and we have been fortunate enough to work with more than 4,000 volunteers during our time in The Bahamas. Locals and visitors, chefs and children, friends and neighbors, all coming together to cook delicious meals, make sandwiches, distribute solar lamps, rebuild docks, deliver meals by truck, boat, or helicopter, and generally lend a hand to community relief and recovery efforts.
After relocating the Nassau kitchen from the National Training Agency to the Bahamas Red Cross in the new year, we brought our trained staff there to continue serving the shelters and also help them with their Meals on Wheels program. We were able to update their kitchen and storage and we look forward to this continued partnership.
Now that the situations on Abaco and Grand Bahama have begun to stabilize, and rebuilding is in its early stages, we’ve established programs to help residents begin cooking again in their homes and to reduce their dependence on WCK-prepared meals. We are subsidizing cookstoves for families who are rebuilding, and have launched a voucher program for families to be able to shop at small businesses. Both of these projects we hope will help the local economy regain strength and stability.
We’ve also launched a series of farmers’ markets to distribute free fresh produce for families to cook at home. These markets, which are held three times a week around Abaco, are meant to help families get the ingredients they need to feed their families. “People are doing much better, but this is very important, because we only have one store open,” Evelyn, an Abaco resident who volunteers at one of the markets, recently told us. This points to the challenges faced by families who are working to rebuild their homes and get their lives back on track after the hurricane – while the situation has improved vastly over the last five months, there is still a long way to go … and we are here to help.
As we look to the future, we see a need to support sustainable farming and fishing projects and other long-term programs in order to help build the resilience of Bahamian food system. We don’t know when or if there will be another big storm, but no matter what happens, we will be here, working alongside the people of this beautiful island country for many years to come.
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