Staff at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) provided hot meals at the Salvation Army Community Feeding Centre on Sunday for the second consecutive year.

Operations Specialist at the IDB, Christel Saab said that the Barbados Office was very happy to be able to do this activity, which winds up a successful year in which they met their objectives to reach out to the communities and the region at large and to be more diverse and inclusive.

“The IDB Barbados Country Office has had a number of events and activities targeted at different stakeholders, we hosted a workshop for Caribbean civil society organizations, launched a few projects targeted at youth through education and culture, hosted a seminar entitled “Doing Business With the IDB” for the private sector, co-hosted the Caribbean Public Private Partnership Forum for public sector agencies and key multilateral institutions, conducted extensive training and retooling with the Public Executing Units and provided contributions to the HIV/AIDS Food Bank and the Barbados Welfare Department. We are very happy with the results thus far,” said Saab.

Brother Samuel Shoye, Manager for the Men’s Hostel and home delivery service driver said that the Salvation Army was very grateful for contributions from organisations like the IDB and welcomed more on board. “We have monthly contributions from two other organisations but we still have at least two and sometimes three Sundays every month free and we are inviting more organisations to come on board and help with this ministry to feed the poor in the community,” he said.

The IDB’s Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) group again coordinated the outreach activity. Janette Archer-Headley, Operations Senior Associate at the Bank, and member of the D&I Group explained that feeding the poor at the Salvation Army was a continuation of the IDB’s mandate through its D&I Action Plan to build its relationship with its community. “The purpose of the D&I is to foster an inclusive work environment with a more diverse workforce, a workforce that reflects the diversity of the Bank’s member countries and that enriches the quality of the IDB’s work. I am very proud of the volunteerism of staff because we contributed even more this year by cooking the food ourselves,” Archer-Headley said.

The Salvation Army’s other programs include a clothing drive for vagrants, Sunday Church Service, Men’s Fellowship, Women’s League and Kettling, which is a means to appeal to the general public for assistance to supplement their charitable endeavours.