THE Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church, through its food bank, has embarked on a partnership with Derrimon Trading Ltd (DTL) to provide food for people in need across Jamaica.

Between April 25 and 28 the church delivered food supplies valued at $5.4 million throughout its five regions — west, central, north, north east and east Jamaica.

“This is but a start of what we hope to be a great partnership with DTL as we seek to help in alleviating hunger in our society,” a news release from the church quotes Pastor Levi Johnson, chairman of The Food Bank and executive secretary of the Jamaica Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (JAMU). “The plan is to do a distribution of food every three months, and then as we get more contribution and support we go monthly.”

In addition to the church’s regions there were distributions to Northern Caribbean University (NCU) and Portmore Church for the Deaf, which are operated by the SDA.

“The humanitarian mission of the church is one that I am deeply committed to and [one which] is embedded in the charitable ministry of Jesus. Being His hands and feet is awesome. I am passionate and at the same time humbled to help in the feeding of some of the most needy persons across Jamaica,” Johnson added.

On April 25, at a handover exercise at the West Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists headquarters, Leroy Dawkins, channel trade manager for DTL, implored other companies to get on board with the feeding programme of The Food Bank.

“Derrimon Trading Limited is pleased to be partnering with the Seventh-day Adventist Church,” said Dawkins. “I would like to implore and encourage other corporate entities to be good corporate citizens and come on board and do likewise — because if one can feed a thousand, two may very well feed ten thousand.”

Funding for the initiative was also garnered from local church members and church workers, the JAMU, and local and overseas donors.

“We are surrounded by a number of areas of needs,” Pastor Glen Samuels, president of the church’s Western Region, said, noting that those areas include communities which are within the first zone of special operations (ZOSO) declared in 2017.

ZOSOs have been declared in communities where rampant criminality, gang warfare, escalating violence and murder became threats to the rule of law.

“We have Granville, Flanker, Norwood, Rose Heights, areas such as Railway Lane and Canterbury and sections of Glendevon, where the need is always more than the supplies we have,” said Samuels.

“We continue as a conference/region to provide, not only education for the children of our workers but more so our commitment is to assist any youngster that comes to us with the need because our ministry is to the community. It is one of the most joyful areas of service to provide service to the community. The church prepares itself to minister to broken people as God lends us breath in this region,” Samuels explained.

The Food Bank is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica and extends the compassionate ministry of Jesus by sourcing and distributing food to needy people in the island.