Firefighters Rally To Assist Food Bank

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We mainly see them at the scene of fires, accidents and other calamities - and, yet again, local firefighters are springing into action to offer their services.

This time, however, it is in a totally different setting; their "life-saving" is aimed at the National HIV/AIDS Food Bank.

The administrative coordinator of the Bajan Fire Fighters' Network, Glyne Alleyne, told Barbados TODAY, its Red Barrel Appeal was conceptualized out of a desire to expand the community outreach of the network. In addition, the organization aims to assist the National HIV/AIDS Food Bank quarterly, an initiative started officially last Thursday.

"This initiative was born out of a desre to assist the HIV/AIDS Foof Bank with securing donations of non-perishable food items to help persons/families living with HIV/AIDS. This pandemic continues to ravish our society, and we are playing our part in assisting by rendering humanitarian assistance to this worthwhile effort," Alleyne said, as he explained that the approach to the initiative was two-pronged.

"We would have started out in three strategic locations, and it forms part of the strategy which speaks to first encouraging members of the Barbados Fire Service, both fire officers and civilian staff, to generously give canned and other non-perishable food items to assist persons who are dependent on the HIV/AIDS Food Bank.

"Those donations can be made at the three territorial divisions within the Barbados Fire Service, namely, the Southern Division headquarters which is the Airport Fire Station, the Northern Division headquarters which is the Arch Hall Fire Station and the Central Division headquarters which is Probyn Street, the Barbados Fire Service Headquarters," Alleyne noted.

The public has also been encouraged to support the programme as the network next month makes a number of visits to supermarkets. This, he said would allow them to donate non-perishable food items on the spot after they complete their purchases.

"We can appreciate that as a people we are still grappling with the impact of the economic recession and this will have an effect on people's ability to give. So at this time there no plans to expand the initiative beyond our current goal of collecting on a quarterly basis. The initiative will be examined and reviewed to measure its effectiveness, after that assessment a decision will be made as to whether we need to restructure the programme.

"We have so far received positive feedback on the project, especially via our social media networks, but the actual response has been a little sluggish and we would very much appreciate if the media and corporate Barbados would join us and support this," Alleyne said. (RG)

Source: Barbados Today 2013/11/14

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