Toys for Tots Team feeds hungry hundreds affected by Hurricane

The stories and struggles of Richard’s victims are telling. The poverty levels have plunged even lower and many families in the Yarbrough area are managing without basic amenities. Food and shelter are huge concerns after the devastation. The families are clinging together and desperately need assistance.  News Five’s Jose Sanchez caught up today with the tent boys whose tale of survival is touching. There were others that found comfort in a feeding program.

Jose Sanchez, Reporting

The stories and struggles of the Richard’s victims are telling. Many families in the Yarbrough area are managing without basic amenities. Food and shelter are huge concerns. But amidst all the suffering, some help is flowing. News Five Jose Sanchez was in the area today and caught with persons living in tents.

Many lives have been interrupted by hurricane Richard. Terry Andrewin, a fisherman and a carpenter watched as the hurricane blew away his home.

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Terry Andrewin, Hurricane Victim

“I live in this area for four years now. I lose everything out of my house even clothes. I have to the try get clothes and food and thing. My family mi di squat on the land for at least thirteen years and the weather come and just take away all our things.”

Jose Sanchez

“Now that the weather has taken everything from unu, your facing additional problems?”

Terry Andrewin

“We di face wah ‘nother problem. They seh we di squat pan street. So we noh know weh we wah do because the people they some talk to we dis morning and that they will get back to weh. So during the course ah di day we wah see what they got fi we.”

Jose Sanchez

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“Since Monday night Terry has been sleeping in this makeshift tent. Inside this tent there is a rug at the back which he used to sleep on Monday night. That’s the first night after the hurricane. But since then he has found the bottom section of his bed. It has no feet on it. What he does is to take a piece of cardboard on top then place a sheet on top of that. And that becomes his bed for the night. If you look around there is grass. He sleeps here with no covering. And that’s how some of the people in this area are living after Hurricane Richard.”

Terry Andrewin

“Well in ya so there were three different homes over this corner where the tents are. Me deh yah, mi cousin deh over deh. The next balli weh mi deh ina dah house weh drift over so weh they di try bring back over deh, he di stay with fi he family deh. But we no got nobody to beg lodging so we stay here and take it how we come.”

Edward Sandoval also sleeps at night in a tent. This fisherman by trade has lived here for ten years.

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Edward Sandoval, Hurricane Victim

“I stayed here for the hurricane and saw when my house went away with the breeze and you know it was heavy wind. I’m living here ten years now and I love it due to weh I go fishing and do my drumming. Accommodations right now is very rough, so hopefully we get this tarp and sheet and groceries from the Red Cross and I appreciate it. I appreciate everything people done for us from around the whole world and I am very appreciative of it.”

Jose Sanchez

“Clearly living in a tent is not what you want to do for much longer.”

Edward Sandoval

“Definitely, I really woulda need some assist from the government and we don’t want any negativity and we appreciate anything from the government and we want them to support the youths. With the youths we can move forward.”

Although these men have managed to build a makeshift shelter, they like hundreds in the area need more than tarps, they need food.  The NGO Toys for Tots Committee has decided to feed the homeless. Hundreds of breakfast, lunch and dinner plates are being handed out daily at the Yabra Community Policing Unit.

Indira Craig, Toys For Tots Member

“It was very disturbing the images we saw. I think it was the first time we really get the sense of how things were behind here and how desperate people were. So after going home and deciding to just talk to a couple of my close friends from Toys for Tots, we decided that first thing Thursday morning we’ll try to at least make a move on getting food. We felt that a kitchen, a hot meal, was relevant. We saw that yes, supplies were being handed out, but for some of these people out here, they don’t have the amenity of a stove. So really it was just the concept of putting out a warm cooking station where people can come in a having a hot food in the morning, during the lunch time and in the evening—to hold them over noh.”

Jose Sanchez

“How many people have you fed on each day?”

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Indira Craig

“Well we started yesterday morning and we started out with the first meal being lunch. We ended up feeding nearly eight hundred people which was far more than we had anticipated.”

Private enterprises are now beginning to assist the food drive organizers with supplies.

Indira Craig

“We knew we wanted to feed between three to five hundred people and as the day progressed we had so many people jumping in in supporting. We had Mister Pitterson giving us bread; we had Howell Longsworth and the church mission coming in later in the day providing us with some additional soup. We had food and beverage with some of the containers. We’ve had since then Hummingbird Primary school coming in to support; we had BWEL giving us some gas to help with the cooking. We’ve ahd K-Park, Santiago Castillo, Grace Kennedy. A lot of people, so once it started, came on board and kinda just been the driving factor behind us being out here and being able to provide food.”

Jose Sanchez

“And today, how many plates have you prepared?”

Indira Craig

“Well this morning due to the weather, we didn’t have as greater turnout. We ended up going into the communities and handed out little over three hundred nearly four hundred plates for breakfast. We think that lunch will be a lot more and in the evening we will be having a supper for them. So will continue with this until Sunday.”

Craig says the Toys For Tots committee which organized the food drive will continue up until Sunday. The Yabra Community Policing Unit feeding station will be open from seven am until seven p.m. Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.

If you would like to help out the tent boys, Terry Andrewin and Edward Sandoval can be reached at 628-1937. And if you want to contribute to the feeding program you can call Indira Craig at Continental Airlines.