A chance encounter along a George Town street this summer has led to a bright and cheery mural being painted on the wall of the Cayman Food Bank warehouse.
Roisin ‘Rosh’ Addlestone was driving on Sparkys Drive in late June when she spotted an elderly woman walking with a cane along the road. When she stopped and offered her a ride, the woman, who is 90 years old, told her she was heading to the food bank.
“I drove her there and waited for her,” Addlestone said.
While there, she said, she thought the site could “do with a little bit of cheering up because it was a sort of unfinished space, and the customers have to wait a little while, and I thought it’d just be nice if they had something nice to look at, because it’s a big white wall and it looked like a canvas ready to be painted, to me.”
She had the idea to brighten up the place and “roped in” some friends to help, including Larissa MacLean, a muralist who agreed to add a landscape to the wall facing where clients sit while waiting for the food donations.
The scene shows the sea, a bright yellow sun and three birds, signifying the three Cayman Islands.
Addlestone, who supplied the paint, and MacLean chose an image from Pinterest and they projected that onto a wall, and McLean, assisted by other volunteers, used her painting skills to bring it to life.
They’ve spent the last three weeks or so working on the project, painting at weekends and when the food bank wasn’t open.
The Cayman Food Bank officially opened in December 2017, but had been working informally out of the First Assembly of God Church for several years before that.
Since then, the food bank has been supplying food to some of Cayman’s neediest families and individuals, helping up to 480 people a week, said the facility’s manager Gene Eden.
While people who come to the food bank, housed in a warehouse in the airport industrial estate, can be given pre-packed grocery bags; they can also browse shelves of food on the second floor, which Eden described as being a bit like a supermarket.
Acknowledging that accepting charity can be difficult for some, he said being able to pick their own items helps “give them back a sense of pride and autonomy”.
The food bank, which is open Tuesday to Friday, from noon to 3:30pm, accepts donations of food and money. The food is handed out to those in need, and the money is used to buy food from local supermarkets and distributors, or to help pay for expenses to keep the charity running, like rent, electricity bills and staffing costs.
While donors’ generosity spikes during holidays, like at Christmas, Eden says the food bank is in need of donations year round.
“We can only give out what we get,” he said.
Eden estimates that the food bank distributes 16,000 pounds of food every month.
“There’s still a great need on this island, with the wealth gap and the cost of living increases we’ve all been hearing about,” Addlestone said. “For people, it can make a really big difference if they can get a few bags of groceries to help them with their costs.”
Donations of food, personal hygiene items and cleaning supplies are always needed and can be dropped off at the organisation’s warehouse at Unit 11 Rosedale Warehouse, 51 Sleepy Hollow Drive, George Town, or monetary donations can be made via Cayman National Bank, at ‘The Good Samaritan Food Bank’, account 01115055.
To have items collected, email [email protected] or [email protected], or call 926-6111.
To request assistance from the Food Bank, call 926-6111 or visit www.caymanfoodbank.com.
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