The Su­per­mar­ket As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (SATT) will be spear­head­ing a ma­jor food dri­ve in­clu­sive of hot meals for those cur­rent­ly im­pact­ed by the re­cent ad­verse weath­er and who are now in cri­sis sit­u­a­tions af­ter days of se­vere flood­ing and land­slides.

In a state­ment is­sued to­day, SATT re­vealed that some of its mem­bers al­ready have be­gun to do what they can to help.

“Mem­bers with­in SATT have al­ready be­gun to ini­ti­ate re­lief ef­forts through co­or­di­na­tion with the Of­fice of Dis­as­ter and Pre­pared­ness Man­age­ment (ODPM), as well as the var­i­ous mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions and NGO net­works,” the Su­per­mar­ket As­so­ci­a­tion re­port­ed.

For its part, SATT says it will be “com­menc­ing a for­ma­tive food dri­ve com­pris­ing hot meals, sand­wich­es, snacks and bev­er­ages to al­le­vi­ate the plight of those still mired un­der sev­er­al feet of wa­ter.”

“We rec­og­nize the plight of the strand­ed and their im­me­di­ate needs as sev­er­al com­mu­ni­ties re­main ac­ces­si­ble on­ly by boat in some cas­es to as­sist these per­sons and fam­i­lies,” SATT said. “Both stores and dis­trib­u­tors will be part­ner­ing to en­sure sub­stan­tive re­lief ef­forts are as­sured to af­fect­ed com­mu­ni­ties.”

“We al­so rec­og­nize a dire need for ba­sic sup­plies of med­i­cine, hy­giene prod­ucts, de­ter­gents and san­i­tary prod­ucts and will be pro­vid­ing these where pos­si­ble to al­le­vi­ate the con­di­tions of the af­fect­ed homes,” the or­gan­i­sa­tion not­ed.

Ac­cord­ing to the Su­per­mar­ket As­so­ci­a­tion, “a mul­ti-pronged ap­proach is nec­es­sary as flood­wa­ters sub­side.”

“There will be a need to work with fam­i­lies to get them back on their feet with the help of cor­po­rate Trinidad and To­ba­go,” SATT ob­served.

“We com­mit to en­sur­ing that the most ba­sic as­sis­tance need­ed is ren­dered in these na­tion­al re­cov­ery ef­forts,” the or­gan­i­sa­tion pledged.