THA launches food-support programme

A six-month, people-focused food and nutrition support programme has been launched by the THA Division of Food Security, Natural Resources, the Environment and Sustainable Development.

The Community Care initiative was launched on May 22 at the Shaw Park Food Hub and will run from May to October 2025 delivering monthly boxes of locally grown, nutritious food to selected households across Tobago.

Chairman of the Tobago Agrobusiness Development Company (TADCO) Ricardo Alfred said access to nutritional food has become increasingly difficult, while also being hindered by obstacles relating to global challenges, the ongoing effects from covid19, climate change and escalating prices.

“The Community Care package is aimed at fulfilling persons that we deem in need as it relates to getting some nutritional benefits.”

Also speaking at the event, THA secretary for the division, Nathisha Charles-Pantin, however, said access to nutritious food should not be a luxury but more so a right. The launch of the initiative, Charles-Pantin said, is a declaration that her division is serious about food security.

“The division is serious about building a Tobago where healthy, locally grown food is the norm not the exception.”

She said the programme was a strategic intervention that spoke directly to the mandate of building resilient food systems on the island to create sustainable livelihoods for the farmers and to ensure that Tobagonians had reliable access to food that contributed to their overall well-being.

“This programme is also about restoring dignity. No parent should have to choose between paying a bill and buying fruits and vegetables for their children. No elder should have to ration meals to make groceries last. No one should have to normalise hunger or quietly adjust their expectations of health because of what is affordable.

"These are the hard choices people make when access is not equal.”

She said the initiative went beyond providing support for people in need.

“This initiative is not only for the participants, it supports over 60 Tobago farmers and a wide mix of agro processors.

"Tobago’s own answered the call and showed up with pride. It means Tobago is feeding Tobago, and that is the model we must continue to nurture – a direct line between our producers and our people. A circular food economy that puts money back into our own communities while nourishing our bodies.”

Charles-Pantin said names were collected from every electoral district across the island with the belief that food security could not be selective.

She said every Tobagonian deserved the dignity of good, nutritious food, adding that every effort was made to ensure the programme reached every corner of the island.

“Food is life, and when people are not receiving proper nutrition, it doesn’t just affect what’s on the plate, it affects what’s in the classroom, the office, the clinic and the home. It impacts our children’s ability to learn, our elder’s ability to manage illness and our workers ability to produce.”

Deputy Chief Secretary and Secretary of Health, Wellness and Social Protection Dr Faith Brebnor said she fully supported the initiative as it would help the health sector manage the overflow of patients.

“We are very, very welcoming of this project because it means we now have another opportunity to tap into another resource that allows our communities to get the kind of nutritional support that is healthy.”

Brebnor said the highest burden at the Tobago Regional Health Authority (TRHA) had to do with diseases that could be controlled based on lifestyles.

“A big chunk of our lifestyle has to do with what we eat. Every single month, I have to approve from the Division of Health, Wellness and Social Protection sending at least $41 million every single month to the Tobago Regional Health Authority. That is what it costs every single month to get the health system working.”