Cayman’s lifeline for struggling families has issued a Christmas appeal for people to donate food and cash to help those less fortunate than themselves over the holiday season.
Woody Foster, co-founder and director of the Cayman Food Bank, and Christy Whittaker of the Dart Group, a supporter of the charity, said Christmas would not be full of good cheer for many without help and that the number of those in need increased every year.
Foster added, “Right now we probably average around 900 people a month. That’s families of around three to five so that’s a significant amount of people.”
He was speaking as the charity and Dart highlighted opportunities to donate, including handing in non-perishable goods and cash donations at the Camana Bay Visitor Centre on Market Street.
Whittaker added that registration fees for the annual Camana Bay Santa Run, to be held on 13 Dec., would be donated to the food bank.
She said that Camana’s Bay’s Holiday Market, to be held on 6 Dec., would have a food bank stall to accept donations and wrap presents bought at the market for a donation and that people could also sign up for the Santa Run.
Whittaker added, “There are numerous ways and it helps people to have a different avenue to donate. It’s very convenient. You just park, you can drop off your goods and explore the holiday market at the same time you’re giving back as well.”
Foster said the public should also consider a reverse advent calendar where, instead of eating a chocolate every day in the run-up to Christmas, they should set aside a can of food every day for the food bank.
He added that donations of expensive items like Pampers diapers were also welcome because of the number of families with small children.
He added that demand for the help from the food bank had jumped since it first opened its doors in 2017.
And Foster highlighted that the charity was forced to spend between $10,000 and $12,000 a month to buy enough groceries to cope.
Increase in demand
“When we first started, it was really slow going at first,” said Foster. “We were probably around 400 people and then, because of COVID-19, it started to ramp up, obviously, and so we have now landed at around 900.”
But Foster added that, because of Cayman’s relative prosperity, many people did not believe that poverty existed on the islands, although the food bank needed more cash donations.
“The easy one is cash. Money is always a big problem, I’m not going to lie. It’s actually quite a big problem for us,” he said. “But I think what’s then linked to that is people’s lack of understanding that there are people in need.
“So we’ve struggled since inception to get people, the community, to understand there is a need for the Cayman Food Bank, because they don’t believe, I guess, Cayman being a rich country – between that and ‘government should be helping’ that there shouldn’t be a need.
“But that’s not accurate. There is a need for the food bank, unfortunately and we need support or we are at risk of closure.”
Whittaker said Dart and Camana Bay had been backing the food bank for more than a decade.
“Food is a necessity for everyone and it’s really sad that in the Cayman Islands we have people who don’t have access to it, so helping these kids and this charity is really a no brainer.”
For more information about the food bank, visit caymanfoodbank.com and for the Santa Run, see eventpro.ky.
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