Royal Caribbean F&B Team Visits Moseff House

On Thursday, February 20th, 2020, we welcomed team members from Royal Caribbean’s Food & beverage department to our headquarters – Moseff House. The team came down to analyze the process of food preparation, cooking, and distribution.

With our eyes set on opening up regional centers in New Providence and Grand Bahama, our partners are examining everything from menus to food packaging. Their goal is to assist us with creating a faster and more efficient process of preparing, cooking and distributing food to those in need.

“We can share best practices and hopefully help this organization grow efficiently so that they can continue to feed more and more people because the need is there and continues to be there,”

said Russell Benford, VP of Government Relations at Royal Caribbean International.

Frankie Campbell, Minister of Social Service & Urban Development along with Shonel Ferguson, the MP for Fox Hill came out in support of our hunger eradication efforts in the Bahamas.

Patricia Minnis Steps Up to Patron BFN

It started as a Sunday after church invitation by Bahamas Feeding Network Executive Director Philip Smith to Patricia Minnis.

Mrs. Minnis agreed and on a Sunday not long ago the wife of the Prime Minister quietly and without fanfare made her way through the crowd that gathers every week in the yard outside the modest cottage that has been transformed into a kitchen staffed by volunteers. 

Mrs. Minnis was wide-eyed. “Amazing” is the way she later described it. “The effort, the comradery, the achievement, all the volunteers working in sync, even the music and singing, all the elements came together in this mission to feed the hungry.” 

She watched container after container fill with food, napkins, utensils, get placed in compartments on palettes, ready for collection or delivery or for members of the nearby Fox Hill community to come and eat as they listened to sounds coming from an unrehearsed choir of voices singing along with radio.
  
She asked if she could pitch in. The woman some refer to as the first lady of The Bahamas rolled up her sleeves, donned gloves and began dishing out food, packing containers and watching the eyes of men, women and especially children as they came to collect their home-cooked chicken, peas ‘n rice and more. She observed as Philip Smith, a once highly successful businessman who gave it all up and has spent the last decade feeding the hungry, scooped ice cream out of vast containers and other volunteers poured juices. She saw the children make themselves at home in the little yard, playing, laughing, knowing there was hot food waiting. And her heart melted.

Within a month, Mrs. Minnis stepped up and accepted the role of patron, joining founder His Excellency Frank J Crothers, Ambassador of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and Malta, the organisation’s founder and first patron. 

The role is especially critical as the 6-year-old non-profit prepares to take on its biggest challenge yet, feeding children in school. For Mrs. Minnis, a lifelong educator, the opportunity to serve was perfect and for the executive director, her patronage is more than a matter of prestige. 

“From the moment that Patricia Minnis asked if she could join the volunteer line, rolled up her sleeves and went to work, I knew that in addition to being a kind and compassionate person, she would bring a positive energy that would be important as we plan our greatest challenge yet, to feed students at some schools,” said Smith. “We are delighted and honoured that Patricia Minnis, who has spent her professional life as a teacher in the government system, has accepted the invitation and stepped into the role of patron.” 

Smith said an announcement about the school feeding program would be made later and the program would start in September. 

Help Us Feed 5k Families This Christmas

In partnership with AML Foods, Bahamas Feeding Network is appealing to corporate Bahamas and the general public to donate towards Christmas Dinner Packages, valued at $40 each. The packages will contain items to prepare a festive holiday meal for a family in need.

Our goal is to raise $150,000. AML Foods has jumpstarted our goal with a donation of $30,000 in celebration of its 30th anniversary in business.

Serving Up Hot Meals and Hope at 5 Nassau Shelters

Vowing “We will be there until the last person finds another place to call home,” Bahamas Feeding Network executive director Philip Smith said today that the feeding organization was now providing hot meals for five shelters in Nassau while continuing to work at Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s field kitchen in Grand Bahama.

Vowing “We will be there until the last person finds another place to call home,” Bahamas Feeding Network executive director Philip Smith said today that the feeding organization was now providing hot meals for five shelters in Nassau while continuing to work at Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s field kitchen in Grand Bahama. 

“The volunteers are absolutely amazing,” said Smith, whose 6-year-old network is doing 150 meals a day for each of five shelters in Nassau while maintaining its presence on the ground in Grand Bahama where volunteers are helping with the land-based kitchen the cruise company set up after nearly 10 days of diverting ships daily to prepare and deliver hot meals to survivors of the historic Category 5 Hurricane Dorian.  

“We also need to keep thanking Royal Caribbean,” Smith added. “They have been incredible, providing the food for Nassau and 20,000 hot meals a day in Grand Bahama. During a normal week, it’s Royal Caribbean’s generosity that largely lets us prepare and provide up to 5,000 meals a week.” Volunteers prep, cook and plate those meals twice a week on Thursdays and Sundays, operating out of a modest cottage on Fox Hill Road.  

Now, BFN volunteers have added the Fox Hill Community Centre, a temporary home to more than 200 evacuees, almost all from Abaco. They are also cooking for and distributing hot meals to the Cavalry Haitian Baptist Church Community Center, All Saints Anglican Church, the Pilgrim Baptist Church and Bahamas Academy Centre.  

“I lost everything, couldn’t save nothing,” said one evacuee from Dundas Town, Abaco who was filled with uncertainty of the duration of time she would be housed in the shelter after arriving to Nassau via a Bahamas Ferries vessel. “It was hard, but thank God we made it through. I wouldn’t want anyone to experience what we experienced.”  The effort drew high praise from Fox Hill MP Shonel Ferguson.  

“For many who are here with us at the Fox Hill Community Centre, the sight of the Bahamas Feeding Network van pulling up means more than just a hot meal,” said Ferguson, who has all but lived at the shelter since the post-storm evacuation began. “They know that the volunteers from the Feeding Network are also coming to share compassion and words of healing and hope.”  
Smith worries about the longer-term impact of displacement. 

“Before there was even a storm called Dorian, one in every seven persons or so in The Bahamas was living under the poverty level of less than $11.64 a day,” said Smith. “Now we have thousands of persons who were displaced. They don’t have a home to go back to, a job to report to, a future that has any kind of certainty. We need to be there for them in every way we can and if that means serving hope along with hot meals, we will do that until the very last person in a shelter has another place to call home.” Founded in 2013, the Bahamas Feeding Network has grown steadily. Today it preps, cooks and distributes more than 5,500 hot meals a week through a network of more than 100 churches, soup kitchens and feeding organization and 500 parcels of groceries. Additionally, more than $500,000 in food vouchers have been distributed over the years.