Food prices have gone up in recent months. That is evidenced in official reports on inflation released by various agencies, but it is also clear from one trip to the grocery store or a favorite lunch spot.
High food prices have placed added strain on the most vulnerable and what that means, said Bishop Walter Hanchell, who runs Great Commission Ministries, is that more people are coming to the Wulff Road-based charity for help, but the organization is getting less food for the same amount of money it previously spent to run its program.
“We are getting less food for the same [amount] and, on top of that, we have so many mothers who are coming to us, calling every day for shelter, so right now, we have about five or six families in hotels. That’s very costly,” he said.
According to Hanchell, Great Commission Ministries feeds 500 people daily.
“The demand has gone up for food and so have the prices, so it’s very challenging,” he told The Nassau Guardian.
The Bahamas National Statistical Institute (BNSI) recently reported that consumer prices continued to climb at a rapid pace this year, with the latest index showing a seven percent increase year over year at the end of July.
July itself represented a major increase over the previous few months with a 1.5 percent increase. This is the most significant jump month over month recorded since before January 2020, according to the report, which only goes as far back as January 2020.
Geopolitical conflict this year has worsened what many had already been experiencing — high energy prices, high food prices and expensive housing costs.
Hanchell estimated that, in recent times, poverty in The Bahamas has increased substantially.
“I don’t know why they don’t do surveys. Get official figures, but I would imagine, my estimation would probably be [poverty levels have increased] about 30, 35 percent than what it was over four, five years ago,” he said.
It has been quite some time since any broad-based poverty study has been conducted in The Bahamas, though anecdotal evidence suggests the most vulnerable have faced even more difficult times over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in widespread unemployment and triggered supply chain issues that fueled high inflation.
“The Bahamas Living Conditions Survey 2001”, released by the Department of Statistics in 2004, said at the time that the face of Bahamian poverty was largely masked by the country’s low poverty rate of about nine percent.
Only some five percent of households fell below the annual poverty line of $2,863 per person.
But that was more than a decade ago.
To much applause, Prime Minister Philip Davis announced in his budget communication in May increased funding for NGOs by 10 percent across the board, and allocations to the Great Commission Ministries and the feeding program headed by Bishop Lawrence Rolle.
“They have provided meals throughout the pandemic, and continue to do so now with little to no public sector support,” Davis said.
Great Commission was allocated $100,000 and Rolle’s program was allocated $75,000.
Hanchell said while his organization is grateful, the amount does not go very far given the great need.
“What they give us every year, it lasts us about two, three months,” he said.
“It’s not sufficient. I told them they need to quadruple that. It’s not enough, but we are thankful. We are grateful for the little that we get. We’re not complaining.”
The organization operates through the help of various donors.
Hanchell said given the high cost of living, there is also an urgent need for more shelter.
“We’re doing our best to help as many people as we [can]. Our shelters are full,” he said.
“That’s why we are trying to build a 100-bed shelter on Carmichael Road. We just got the plans approved, so we hope to start construction in January and that’s going to cost us about $3 million. It has to be done and somebody has to make it happen.
“I believe that’s one of my assignments, to make that happen. We have to help our people.”
Hanchell also said Great Commission is seeing more evidence that drug abuse and mental illness are on the rise in communities.
“We have so many issues in the country that need to be addressed and it seems nobody is touching it,” he said.
A Mental Health Bill before Parliament would both protect and improve the lives of Bahamians who suffer from mental illness, Minister of Health and Wellness Dr. Michael Darville said in July.
“This state-of-the-art piece of legislation is not only progressive, but leads the way, globally,” Darville said.