The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

AN Abaco pastor says there is a great need for social assistance on the island as people struggle to feed themselves amid increased food costs due to inflation.

Pastor Silbert Mills told The Tribune yesterday that the situation has been compounded by the addition of value added tax on breadbasket items, which were zero-rated under the previous Minnis administration.

Months before much of the country experienced the blow of higher food costs, Pastor Mills said Abaco was already suffering higher than normal prices.

“The inflation hit Abaco a long time ago before the real inflation began in the county because right after COVID-19, we had a supply chain issue and prices were jumping up without notice and in a manner we had never seen before,” Pastor Mills said. “That has been exacerbated by the recession that’s on.

“So, we were going through the high cost of goods long before the recession began.”

He also said: “The food costs have always been higher in Abaco than anywhere else. We’re still experiencing that now and even though there was a 10 percent reduction on VAT on food supply there is absolutely no way that you can convince me that adding 10 percent onto breadbasket items has not hurt us. That is truly hurting us in the bottom line.

“It’s rough up here to do shopping. We have just two choices to choose from and the prices are basically the same in both.

“There is a great need for social assistance in Abaco. I don’t know how the single mothers are making it and a lot of the senior citizens how they’re really making it as far as them being able to live and go to the food store. But it’s just so very expensive that I can see that here is great need from a church perspective. I am a senior pastor in a church and every day we see the need. People are in need of assistance for food vouchers and help just generally.”

He said previously he was able to help those in need, but his church’s supply of goods has been depleted and tithes and offerings are lower than usual.

“During the pandemic after Dorian we had partnered with some of the NGOs and the government food assistance where we were one of the locations that was distributing food weekly and hundreds would come out every week to receive bags of groceries and when that cut off, I don’t know how these people were making it.

“They were so dependent and became reliant on that that I really don’t know how these people are making it now.

“Our resources have been exhausted in that regard. A lot of our members have been displaced so the revenue from tithes and offering has also been impacted so you don’t have a whole lot to go around in this regard and so it’s just a tough situation that we’re facing and as we’re going through it there seems to be no end in sight.

“You know recessions, they’ll say maybe we’re looking to see this end in 12 months, but nobody is talking about the end of this thing yet and that’s the scary part of this recession that we’re going through.”

He is also of the view that more could have been done by now in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian. Public view has shifted toward the progress of Abaco and Grand Bahama nearly three years after the storm’s passage with revelations about the money paid out for contracts under the Disaster Reconstruction Agency and its former managing director’s hefty salary and gratuities.

Pastor Mills said: “I think more can always be done. I think the decision not to build a single house that the (former) government made was a serious indictment on their help to hurting people and it translated in them losing both seats in Abaco and so that speaks for itself.

“We had the biggest disaster that the country has ever seen. Homes were flattened from Central Abaco down to Cooper’s Town and the government made the decision that they were not going to help one person rebuild. That was not a good decision. Not even in hindsight from jump street and those persons who needed help still do not have a home. “That’s a bad bad situation to be in. They are struggling and they have no idea what the next step will be with regards to a home. This is talking about single parents, senior citizens. You know I go back to the Ingraham administration and Hurricane Floyd. We built 80 something homes for people after (Hurricane) Floyd.

“The Christie administration after (Hurricane) Francis and Jean, they built almost 100 homes for people and the greatest disaster in the western hemisphere with the most horrific storm there was, the government chose in its policy not to rebuild a single home.

“That was a catastrophic mistake,” he said.

In April 2021, more than 2,500 homeowners were currently being assisted in Grand Bahama and Abaco since the Small Homes Repair programme resumed under the DRA.

At the time, according to Wendell Grant, project director of DRA, funds amounting to some $2.7m were given for home repairs since the programme resumed in February 2021.