NPOs that donate food in St. Maarten met in a workshop hosted by NPOwer and Freegan Food Foundation to address the issue of food sustainability for people in need.
PHILIPSBURG--Local organisations that offer food support to children via day-care facilities, afternoon school programmes and foster homes, as well as to senior citizens and families living in poverty, are looking at a new approach to helping people in need. Several organisations will meet with major food wholesalers on Tuesday.
The end of the largest funded food programme financed by the Dutch government, in close collaboration with the St. Maarten government and managed by St Maarten Development Fund (SMDF) in collaboration with local non-profit organisations (NPOs), has created an urgent need for a new and sustainable approach to hunger relief in the country. Income from now on is mostly derived from funding from Samenwerkende Fondsen (Cooperating Funds) and Resources for Community Resilience (R4CR).
After a gathering in a workshop format hosted by Foresee (4C) Foundation’s latest project NPOwer, NPOs invited major food wholesalers to meet on Tuesday to discuss a joint approach. The NPOs will put forward their case for a “win-win situation” with more effective bulk purchases, utilising the charity programmes of various international suppliers and streamlining a more effective purchasing and delivery method suitable for the wholesalers and local NPOs.
This NPOs-wholesalers meeting is one of six action points established at the workshop held on September 16 to address the need for a sustainable approach to food supply for the needy. Seventeen organisations were represented at the workshop hosted by NPOwer and Freegan Food Foundation’s Director Joost de Jong.
Both NPOs and wholesalers need to tap into more community collaboration and creativity to assist St. Maarten’s most vulnerable persons, participants in the workshop concluded. “The scarcity of food and future lack of funding [require] rethinking of current practices and relationship between local and international suppliers.”
NPOs consider the following action points: create awareness of homegrown and locally available foods; take advantage of food sources available at the most cost-effective price; work with wholesalers and international suppliers to access donations; pool funds and resources to make larger bulk purchases; create and monitor an online platform to manage food stock when in abundance; and facilitate organisations working together to utilise items, equipment, kitchens, vans and computer technology.
The meeting on Tuesday will be held in the office of R4CR/Samenwerkende Fondsen at A.Th. Illidge Road 60, in the former Windward Islands Bank building next to the offices of the National Police, from 4:00 to 5:30pm.
NPOwer on behalf of the NPOs and Freegan Food Foundation welcome all food suppliers to this meeting to discuss how creative thinking can lead to more collaboration and action to assist people in need for the months to come.
For more information on assisting in food sustainability, feel free to contact
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