WAITING FOR FOOD

DESPERATION trumped fears of the covid19 virus as near to a thousand people – including the elderly, pregnant women and women with babes in arm – stood belly-to-back, in the hot sun Friday morning for food hampers from the Living Water Community (LWC) on Frederick Street in Port of Spain.

Social-distancing was non-existent as people pushed against each other outside the centre even as police tried but failed to get the mass to stand in some form of orderly fashion and social-distance themselves.

The chaotic scene outside the LWC on Friday was reminiscent of those on Friday April 17 when police had to disperse a crowd of hundreds who gathered at the Barakah Grounds in Chaguanas to collect hampers donated by broadcaster Inshan Ishmael.

The LWC and other similar NGOs have seen long lines whenever hampers are distributed, since covid19 restrictions meant businesses being forced to close and consequently, many people either losing their jobs or having their salaries slashed. Newsday was told people began arriving at the corner of Frederick and Gordon streets as early as midnight to be first in the line.

By 6 am, when members of the LWC began giving out hampers, the lines stretched as far as Pembroke Street and Keate Street. There were two long queues, one for elderly people and one for pregnant women. Three police units arrived to try to help maintain some semblance of order, but they could do very little as the crowd continued to swell and then bloat.

At 8.30 am, the police had had enough and decided to disperse the crowd. A police officer told Newsday they could not allow people to continue to breach public social distancing rules. Reached for comment, Police Commissioner Gary Griffith said once the police receive prior notice of a hamper distribution there will be enough officers to ensure law and order and also enforce social-distancing rules.

At the time police started ordering people to leave, only those who were already inside the parking lot of the LWC building had received hampers. Many people left without hampers and those who were still waiting, were critical of athe police’s decision saying it was not fair to have been standing for hours only to be ordered to leave by the officers.

“I here from since four to get a food hamper. No one is working in my house and we no longer have anything to eat, so I risked coming despite the stay-at-home orders,” a man told Newsday. A woman complained that many people had paid no attention to the queue and just surged forward towards the LWC building.

“We are waiting from dawn as honest citizens and it is not fair that someone else is late and gets in front of the others. This is a disrespect for the rest,” she said. The vast majority of people left immediately when told by police to do so but others stood in front of the building waiting for information on when next hampers would be distributed.

The LWC has been helping vulnerable people for many years, and especially now, refugees from Latin America who have come to TT because of socio-economic problems in their countries.

Because of the hunger crisis caused by restrictive, anti-covid19 measures, hundreds of families have asked for help from the LWC, which began giving out food hampers this week, from 6 am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Sources at the LWC, speaking with Newsday on Friday, said on the first two days, 400 hampers were given out. On Friday, the number doubled, to 800.

On Wednesday morning, LWC head Rhonda Maingot posted on social media that LWC members arrived at 5.30 am “to find a line from our centre up Frederick Street across Keate and down Pembroke Street...It’s now 7.45. We have given out 400 parcels.” Unfortunately, she said, about 300 people had to be turned away and 120 refugees directed elsewhere that day.

“We just don’t have anything more to pack right now for them,” she wrote. “We will replenish today and pack for Friday. But friends, things are serious. People are real hungry. Any support will be welcomed. I know people have been fantastic in supporting. We thank God for their generosity.” She said donations would be welcomed of “the packed $150 hampers from Massy...or anything else.”

Among the items in each hamper given out on Friday were rice, flour, spaghetti, canned goods, oil and bread.

Donations are collected at the LWC’s Frederick Street building from individuals, companies and charities. People who come for food are allowed inside the building, where sanitising measures are observed.

They are also given breakfast and snacks. It could not be confirmed if the distribution of hampers will continue next week.