By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

MARC Johnson had to borrow his brother’s bicycle in order to join the line and collect a box at the IL Cares Foundation’s drive through food drive yesterday.

The 41-year-old has been out of work since March. Mr Johnson says the box of food will feed his family of three adults and six children.

“The first time I walked up, they told me I needed to either get a car or a bike or something in order for me to get something,” said Mr Johnson.

He was one of scores of people who turned out for the second week of the foundation’s food drive at the Queen Elizabeth Sports Centre. When The Tribune arrived, traffic was backed up on the road leading to the Thomas A Robinson Stadium, echoing similar scenes from last week.

Mother of two Rachquel Walkine, 34, has been out of a job for some time and was thankful for the food.

“It will go a long way honestly,” she said. “I don’t have any groceries in my house so I’m really thankful.”

She said she was previously getting help through the government’s food assistance initiative.

A 65-year-old had been waiting for three hours to get food for a household with 11 family members consisting of his wife, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchild.

“We all lose our job because of the pandemic so this is one way I could get food on the table….Especially how everybody lost their job. We are gonna have to have something to eat. “It’s nice to have it on the table,” he said.

Enrique Lightbourne, 20, is hoping to join the Royal Bahamas Defence Force and has had to make sacrifices this year like so many other people.

“I step away from my job to deal with other side business with the defence force...to do the application and do my medical,” he explained.

“Stepping away from my job, you can’t just sit around because you have bills to pay and stuff like that.”

He is still awaiting the call from the force and getting the box of food helps him save money.

Island Luck’s Marketing Manager Michelle Fox said organisers arrived at the venue just after 7am and met cars at the site with people hoping to get served early. The event was not supposed to start until 10am.

“I got here around 7.25-7.30,” Ms Fox said. “We had to start right away because of the traffic.

“We have a lot of people hurting out there and we get a lot of people in need and this is why we are here. This is what the foundation is for and we do our best to have our boots on the ground and assist communities where we can all year around but as you know because of the pandemic this year everything kinda came to a full stop, but we did not want the year to end without doing something and the biggest cry, the biggest need that we heard was people needed food items.

“The box can feed a family for probably almost a week and today we’re giving out over 5,000 today.”

Despite the crowd, she said the operation was well organised and the lines were moving quickly.

There will be a final distribution next week Thursday.