Members of the St. Maarten Chinese Community Foundation and other foundation representatives with two of the food boxes.
PHILIPSBURG--The St. Maarten Chinese Community Foundation donated 140 individual boxes of assorted food items to several community foundations on St. Maarten on Wednesday, March 4.
“As a proud member of the St. Maarten community, the St. Maarten Chinese Community Foundation wanted to give back in the best way possible. We love St. Maarten and because this is our home, we want to help out however we can. And now, it is by helping to provide foodstuff to those that need it the most,” said foundation President Johnny Mo in a press release on Thursday.
These foundations routinely provide food packages to assist those in our community who need this assistance, according to the release.
The foundation said, as distributing food donations is not in the day-to-day operations of the St. Maarten Chinese Community Foundation, the board reached out to Emil Lee as former Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labour VSA who had the network to organise the donation.
Lee contacted workers within the department of Community Development, Family and Humanitarian Affairs (CDFHA) within the Ministry of VSA to assist. This department has extensive networks of relationships with non-profit organisations and foundations that provide assistance to the vulnerable within the community.
According to Lee, “CDFHA is one of the most instrumental departments within government and they provide ‘boots on the ground’ assistance to the community.”
After being notified, CDFHA came up with a plan for distribution in order to spread the donation to those most in need. They settled on the eight organisations plus some of Social Services’ and CDFHA’s clients. Foundations that received the donation were: The Methodist Church (Cole Bay and Philipsburg), Meals on Wheels, Belvedere Community Center, Christian Faith Ministry, Bible Baptist Church, South Reward Community Collective and the Seventh day Adventist Church (Cole Bay).
The foundations expressed appreciation when they received this donation to better assist the vulnerable in the community, according to the release.
The St. Maarten Chinese Community Foundation thanks the foundations for the continued provision of assistance to the community of St. Maarten. “We need to continue to work together to make St. Maarten better,” said foundation Secretary Kenneth Wong.
