Sun | Apr 28, 2024

RADA to the rescue

Published:Saturday | June 13, 2020 | 12:22 AMNadine Wilson-Harris/Staff Reporter
Tanikie McClarthy Allen, director of corporate affairs and sustainability at J. Wray and Nephew Limited, presents produce to bartender Samara Hardie at the Shaken not Broken Farmers Market staged by the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) in co
Rudolph Brown
Tanikie McClarthy Allen, director of corporate affairs and sustainability at J. Wray and Nephew Limited, presents produce to bartender Samara Hardie at the Shaken not Broken Farmers Market staged by the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) in collaboration with J. Wray and Nephew. The event was held at the J. Wray and Nephew headquarters on Spanish Town Road yesterday.

THE RURAL Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) has already spent close to $70 million to purchase more than 2,400 tonnes of agricultural produce for distribution, as farmers continue to feel the economic pinch from COVID-19.

Peter Thompson, chief executive officer of RADA, said that excess produce has been redistributed to prisons, infirmaries and farmers’ markets in primarily urban areas.

“We have been getting a lot of calls from all different sectors of the country to provide support in terms of food and we have been responding positively,” he told The Gleaner yesterday.

“The farmers are happy, you would have had a lot of complaints if we were not doing it,” he noted.

The RADA boss was among those supporting the ‘Shaken, Not Broken Farmers’ Market’, hosted by J. Wray & Nephew (JWN) yesterday for close to 300 bartenders. Bartenders across the island have been struggling to make ends meet since the Government implemented curfews and other social-distancing measures to stem the spread of COVID-19.

“This is our attempt to give back to them. We understand that they have been struggling. Three months without an income for most persons put you in a very different space, one where you worry about being able to feed your family,” said Tanikia McClarthy-Allen, senior director for Public Affairs and Sustainability at JWN.

In addition to ground provisions and eggs, those who benefited from yesterday’s farmers’ market were also given 240ml bottles of hand sanitisers, $4,000 worth of shopping vouchers for either MegaMart or Hi-Lo supermarkets and products from the company’s marketing team.