So Many Applications for Food Assistance, Not Enough Money

The Food Assistance Program, a merging of the Grocery Bag Program and the COVID Food Assistance, is whittling down in terms of the funds made available for the initiative to continue to the end of this financial year. As it stands, there are approximately thirty thousand applications for relief through the Ministry of Human Development.  That’s a figure that government will not be able to satisfy by the end of March.  Instead, the ministry is seeking to assist the neediest in all thirty-one constituencies across the country. According to Minister Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, they would only cover three to four hundred persons per constituency with the resumption and amalgamation of both programs.

Dolores Balderamos Garcia

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, Minister of Human Development

“We’re working assiduously to get it rolled out in another week or two.  I can’t guarantee the exact date but I do know that all our ministry staff are working really hard.  I think we have received in excess of thirty thousand applications and clearly we will not be able to accommodate everyone.  You know, I want to take this opportunity and I will come back to the details of it, but I want to take this opportunity to say that yes, our ministry is there for the social safety net aspects but we also have to be advocates for empowerment.  So when we talk about food baskets, when we talk about food assistance, it shouldn’t be to try to increase, we should be trying to decrease it by getting jobs for our people.  Of course, these are very difficult times and the government right now, we’re not only scratching our heads but we’re putting the plans in place so that we can jump start the economy.  Of course, we have to be so careful with the COVID, you know.  But I do want to make the point that [the Ministry of] Human Development isn’t there to provide food assistance for everybody, that would be impossible.  So I am hoping that we can reach the poorest of the poor, you know, and we will try our best to work with area reps and people who say, “Look, these are our indigent people and that kind of thing.”  If my figures are correct, now don’t kill me if I get it wrong, but if my figures are correct, we may be able to assist about three to four hundred people per constituency, but again trying to roll it out in an equitable way.”