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Sunday, July 27, 2025

Mon Desir residents create food hub for those in need

by

Rishard Khan
1521 days ago
20210528
Residents of Mon Desir collect grocery items at the food hub in the community centre.

Residents of Mon Desir collect grocery items at the food hub in the community centre.

RISHI RAGOONATH

Res­i­dents of Mon De­sir have come to­geth­er to cre­ate a food hub for mem­bers of their com­mu­ni­ty who have been ad­verse­ly af­fect­ed by the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and re­stric­tions.

Housed at the com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre, those who re­quire ba­sic food and san­i­tary sup­plies can vis­it and pick up what they need.

Ac­cord­ing to the woman be­hind the idea, 27-year-old mem­ber of the com­mu­ni­ty, Kailash Kaliper­sad said she want­ed to tar­get the res­i­dents of the rur­al com­mu­ni­ty who are of­ten over­looked by larg­er cor­po­rate en­ti­ties.

“My aim in ini­tial­ly do­ing it, to­geth­er with every­one else, was to get things out to per­sons in these ar­eas be­cause usu­al­ly per­sons in these ar­eas are...over­looked by the more hefty spon­sors,” she told Guardian Me­dia.

She said one of the rea­sons they chose to cre­ate a food hub in­stead of dis­trib­ut­ing ham­pers was to pre­vent wastage.

“Not every­body is in need of every­thing (so with) a lit­tle you go a long way. You come, pick up what you want to pick up—what you need—and you go. You leave for oth­ers that may be in need al­so,” she said.

The group of res­i­dents hope to con­tin­ue the ini­tia­tive for “as long as pos­si­ble” and as­sist as many peo­ple as they could.

But while the coun­cil­lors played a key role in or­gan­is­ing do­na­tions, Kaliper­sad said more is need­ed.

“Whether you’re from the com­mu­ni­ty or out­side of the com­mu­ni­ty and you’re able to give, we’d be ac­cept­ing any­thing,” she said.

One of the hub’s or­gan­is­ers, Sharon Nichols-De­o­raj al­so ap­pealed for sim­i­lar ini­tia­tives to be done across the coun­try.

“Due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, we know there are many un­for­tu­nate fam­i­lies who can­not pro­vide for them­selves and we are en­cour­ag­ing oth­er com­mu­ni­ties to take this ini­tia­tive that we have done,” she said.

“Es­pe­cial­ly the NGO’s, the busi­ness­men—we are en­cour­ag­ing peo­ple to give back to their com­mu­ni­ties. We have to be our broth­er’s keep­er and to help those who are less for­tu­nate.”

Those will­ing to do­nate items or spon­sor the ini­tia­tive can con­tact Kailash Kaliper­sad at 348-9443, Javed Mo­hammed at 799-2769, Deryck Bowen at 462-2469, Cha­nar­daye at 462-3036 or Sharon De­o­raj at 350-3928.


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