By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

ROYAL Caribbean Cruise Line has donated some twenty 40-foot containers filled with meat and groceries to the Bahamas Feeding Network as a part of its ongoing relationship with The Bahamas.

The day before its first voyage from The Bahamas as a home port, the cruise line’s VP of government relations made a stop to the Fox Hill Community Centre, one of three locations for the BFN’s food distribution.

Its executive director, Philip Smith, was on hand to thank the cruise line for its continued support of the feeding programme.

Since its first donation of $25,000, the cruise line has ramped up its support annually, first to $100,000, then in 2019, quadrupling it to $400,000. Royal Caribbean repeated the generous donation in 2020, despite the complete lockdown of the cruise industry following the COVID outbreak.

“We were blown away by the fact that even when they were totally shut down, they remained committed to helping feed the hungry,” said Mr Smith. “With the dramatic spike in unemployment during the COVID pandemic, the Bahamas Feeding Network took on an expanded role, serving as one of the integral partners in the National Food Distribution Task Force, currently distributing to 5,000 families, or 20,000 individuals every two weeks.

“Royal Caribbean’s most recent donation was its most generous to date – twenty 40-foot containers filled from front to back and floor to ceiling with meat and another container with groceries.”

In response to Mr Smith, the Royal Caribbean Vice President Russell Benford hailed him as a mentor in corporate responsibility.

“From the first time we saw the work of the Bahamas Feeding Network when you and dozens of volunteers were preparing and boxing hot meals in the humble Moseff House cottage down the road, we were super impressed,” he said. “At Royal Caribbean we are so incredibly appreciative just for the opportunity to be able to help and be a part of this. The Feeding Network is a beautiful organisation.

“For those who don’t know, we started this relationship a little over two years ago with just a little small donation and then Philip reached out and said, ‘Hey you guys should come by.’ So we brought a small group of people out of that group, including Michael Bailey, our president CEO.

“Philip put us to work. We were boxing up meals and you could sort of see this relationship start to evolve. It is really about relationships.

“For us this is really about love. We love the Feeding Network. The work that you do is so inspirational. Philip has been a great role model and mentor to us. As companies learn what corporate responsibility really is, we turn to people like Philip Smith and the Feeding Network to tell us how it should be done. I want to really take this opportunity to thank all of you for making us a part of your family.”

The network’s managing director said some 195,000 people have been fed from the programme thus far. And, he said the help from the cruise line will assist in feeding much more.

Also on hand for the occasion was the network’s patron, Patricia Minnis who is also the wife of Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis. She said for her it all has nothing to do with politics, but instead a gesture from the heart.

“I personally go and carry packages to people,” Mrs Minnis said. “And, just when I took a meat package this week to an elderly lady, she cried. She is so thankful for what is being done here. I would like to say that my work here is not for political point of view, but I had a mother … we lived in the Grove in Englerston … and she would go out every day taking things to somebody in need.

“I grew up with that. She would take the clothes off your back and carry it to somebody who was saying that they had a need. So from my heart, I know about giving and participating in love, having grown up in a household where sharing and giving was the order of the day.

“So to the donors I would like to say, the work that you do and when you give, you are not just touching lives, you are changing the odds for some people. Thank you.”

Bahamas Food Services, Solomon’s and Super Value have all pitched in, allowing the Feeding Network to plug in the containers in various locations on their properties to keep the meat at the required temperature as the Bahamas Feeding Network searches for a permanent home or land on which it can build.

Arawak Port Development is also partnering with the Bahamas Feeding Network.