Citing statistics that indicate that approximately 400,000 persons go hungry daily in Jamaica and that food is a basic need of humanity, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica is continuing the fight to alleviate this high level of hunger through a large food bank center.
“As a church, we must respond to this vast need,” exclaimed Pastor Everett Brown, president of the church in Jamaica as he launched the Food Bank. “There are persons in our churches and persons in our wider community who are hungry today. As a result, the church must respond and therefore, in collaboration with our five conferences [regions] we have decided to be intentional in launching The Food Bank.”
Items packaged at a pantry opened by the Adventist Church earlier this year to benefit the community in St. Catherine, in Central Jamaica. Five new food banks will be established across five regional areas in Jamaica to benefit some 500 families every month. The food banks will receive distribution of goods for needy families from a central larger food pantry overseen by the Community Services leadership from the Jamaica Union. [Photo: Central Jamaica Conference]
The virtual launch took place at the Seventh-day Adventist Conference Center in Mount Salem, St. James, Sep. 25, 2021, and broadcast live on all church platform across Jamaica.
In addressing the theme for the day and the tagline for The Food Bank – Giving, Caring, Sharing, Pastor Brown said ever since the inception of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica, its conferences and institutions—such as Northern Caribbean University and Andrews Memorial hospital, as well as the wider membership of the church have been using their resources to address the social and spiritual needs of the people.
The Food Bank will seek to source food and distribute the food through the five conference and in turn conferences will distribute the food to persons in the church and persons in the wider community, said Brown.
