…research shows that many children who do not have enough to eat wind up with diminished capacity to understand and learn. Children don’t have to be starving for this to happen. Even mild undernutrition-…can do it.
Carl Sagan
When people were hungry, Jesus didn’t say, “Now is that political, or social?” He said, “I feed you.” Because the good news to a hungry person is bread.
Desmond Tutu
The #COVID19FOODDRIVEJOS was born out of deep concern for families who do not have food to eat during the lock down period resulting from the spread of the COVID-19 Virus. This concern pushed us at TCLI to go ahead to start a food drive.
This was not a vision we could pull off alone and so our Executive Director put out a call on Facebook and Twitter for any interested persons to join in the team. A number of peoplesigned up and we immediately started creating awareness for the #Covid19FoodDriveJos. This team of voluntary Nigerians have been AMAZING!
To the best of our knowledge, this was the first food drive in Jos, Plateau State during these COVID times, and it has spurred other food drives in Yola, Benue, Abuja and many other places we do not know of.We used social media to our advantage and in 5 days we were able to raise about half a million naira, sort out food requests, and package and deliver 178 food packages to 178 families. We also sent financial support to some needy families outside of Jos. The first phase took place on April 4th, 2020.
A second phase took place on April 18th, 2020 and we were able to package and deliver 174 packages to needy families.
For the third phase, we collaborated with the Jos Community COVID-19 Response Food Driveto facilitate the distribution of One-hundred (100) food packages to needy families in Jos. The distribution took place on Sunday, 26th April, 2020.
The food packages contained a mixture of:
- Rice
- Beans
- Garri
- Corn
- Onions
- Palm oil
- Groundnut oil
- Salt
- Seasoning
- Sugar
- Cornflakes
- Tomato puree
- Spaghetti
- Yam
- A bottle of sanitizer
- Face masks
The recipients were extremely grateful. Amongst them are widows, single moms, elderly people, disabled people, jobless people, people who depend on daily pay and have lost their source of income cos of the shut down, teenage moms and so on. We collected food requests via our helplines and followed up with phone calls to know their exact situation and also arrange for drop off.
We have reached the following locations so far:
Faringada, Tudunwada, Utan/Rock Haven, Rukuba Road, Shen, AngwanRukuba/Tina/Eto Baba, Bukuru, Zawan, Terminus, GadaBiu/Satellite Market, BusaBuji, Millionaires quarters, Gold and base, Rayfield, Old airport, Low cost, Abbatoir, Anglo Jos, La’mingo, Bauchi Ring Road, Rikkos, Furaka, Masalachinjuma’a, Miango, Heipang, Jenta, Hwolshe, Federal Secreteriat, Mangu and BarkinLadi.
We also took time to pray for and encourage the recipients. These three (3) phases brings us to a total of 452 families reached so far in April, 2020 alone! We hope to do more phases as long as the lock down lasts. The food requests keep pouring in daily! We may not be able to feed EVERYONE, but we sure can keep as many children as possible away from hunger and also away from stealing and other vices. According to Mother Teresa, “If you cannot feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”
It has been such a PLEASURE to serve our community in this capacity and we hope to do more!
If you would like to help us feed more families, you can send in your donations through the following bank accounts:
0141525869
Christine Vihishima
Guaranty Trust Bank
or
1015715996
Thinking Cap Literacy Initiative
Zenith Bank
If you also know a family that needs food, please send us a request via our helplines: +2348031146813 or +2348065745896
A short video compilation of the phase one of the food drive can be found on Youtube: https://youtu.be/zChmmq0KPtA
You can also stay up to speed with our activities on our social media pages:
FB: Thinking Cap Literacy Initiative
Instagram & Twitter: @tclinitiativeng
“If you want to eliminate hunger, everybody has to be involved.” (Bono)
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