The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

BISHOP Walter Hanchell is expecting a greater turnout for this year’s Thanksgiving luncheon than in previous years because of the impact of high food costs.

Bishop Hanchell, a long-time advocate for the poor and the founder and president of Great Commission Ministries, said yesterday that he expects to feed some 3,000 people for Thanksgiving this year compared to last year’s 2,000.

“More people are more in need,” he said. “Things are going well, but we’re still trying to get more food for the event because we expect a huge crowd to our Thanksgiving luncheon.

“The cost of living is far too high for this country. I don’t know how poor people make it. I’m very flabbergasted at how the community, the average Bahamian, survives because, going into the food store, the cost of food is astronomical.

“It is a vast negative effect because you know, when you buy goods, you’re getting much less, and you have to serve more people so it has affected us greatly. We need more. We need more resources, we need more finances because we have more people coming in.

“We just want to be able to help more people because a lot of people come to us and it is really sad to have to turn people down. But, of course, you would imagine that our resources are stretched to the limit.

“We still need food coming in every day. We still need funds to take care of all of the expenses of accommodating so many persons.”

Bishop Hanchell said construction of a $3m Hope City shelter to accommodate 100 people should be completed by December 2024.

“Once we get Hope City completed, we can help another 100 persons in order to reduce the persons living on the streets and living in abandoned buildings and living in derelict vehicles,” he said. “There are so many persons like that now and it really bothers me.”

Mr Hanchell said Great Commission Ministries is preparing to officially launch the Live to Give initiative on November 28, with more details to come at that time. Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis has declared November 28 Great Commission Day.