Pantry and COVID-19 Food Assistance on Pause!
Food Pantry and COVID-19 food assistance programme are on pause and the pantry is getting a rebrand of sorts. Today, when we caught up with Minister Dolores Balderamos Garcia, we asked her about the distribution of COVID-19 assistance and how that’s coming along. Well, Minister Balderamos-Garcia told us that her ministry has had to put the programme on pause for a few days because it has become necessary to review and explore how it can be expanded to reach more rural communities. On the topic of the food pantry, which was introduced by the previous administration some years ago to help low income families with groceries, that program, according to Balderamos-Garcia is getting a new name. It will now be called ‘Grocery Bag.’ These forms of aid, according to Balderamos-Garcia, may be subjected to some modifications based on this administration’s policy changes in the long run. Here’s how she explains it.
Andrea Polanco
“The assistance coming out of your ministry, for persons affected by COVID, where does that stand at this time? Does that assistance continue?”
Dolores Balderamos Garcia
Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Minister of Human Development
“It will continue, but we have put a small pause because we want to make a review. There are actually two different programs; one that we used to call Pantry – by the way that word is abolished – we are calling it ‘Grocery Bag’ now. So, you have the grocery bag and then you also have the food assistance under the COVID emergency regulations. Now, we want to help the people who need it most. But clearly as a new administration we have to make a little bit of review. It won’t stop right now but clearly the policy decisions going forward will have to be made by cabinet and I will take my instruction from cabinet. But I can speak to say that we have paused to make certain reviews as to the suppliers, the distributors and the recipients. And of course, with a mandate like what we received, we have to assist the rural areas a little bit more because I think it was a little bit heavily Belize City. But now as you know the new government, there are three Belize rural constituencies that are represented by our administration now and I have to make sure that we try to divide up the little pie in the same way the Prime Minister had to divide up the pie of portfolios, we have to divide a limited pie. And it is not sustainable in the long run because we are talking about loan funding but we will do our best to be as fair as we possibly can keeping in mind the political mandate. But we won’t be snatching away food from the people who continue to have the need. Just give us a little change to have our feet on the ground.”
Reporter
“Minister, any idea how long that pause will be?”
Dolores Balderamos Garcia
“It will be a couple of days, dear, let me assure you. It is not going to be two weeks, three weeks. Christmas the come. They say Krismus the come and I wah mi dan dan. So, we will do our best but realizing of course that we are in difficult times. So, work with us on that nuh.”
Andrea Polanco
“The rebranding – moving it from pantry to grocery bags – what prompted that move?”
Dolores Balderamos Garcia
“It is the same thing but this is personal no w- grocery bag instead of pantry.”
Reporter
“In a previous interview with the C.E.O. of Human Development she stated that you have to qualify in order to get food – what are your thoughts on that?”
Dolores Balderamos Garcia
“Well, we are not taking away the qualification aspect. I have to say the people in the ministry have been working very hard because there is a level of accountability to the funders – the OPEC Fund. So, please, we are not going to be running rough shod over the people who are the professionals and have been there, of that I can assure you.”
