Group Donates Food To Over 200 In Linstead, Middle Quarters

Ralston ‘Gerald’ Taylor, who heads the Gerald and Friends Foundation, said he has a penchant for giving and is happy to have forged ties with people of similar disposition.

For the first time, the Foundation, this month, hosted a major charity event, which targeted just over 200 people in a highly structured way.

“Most of the people that we help are old people and baby mothers with kids who don’t have a job; those are the people we really target,” Taylor told The Beacon.

The packages distributed in parts of two parishes contained various food items, including chicken, cooking oil and rice.

The first distribution, which targeted a minimum 150 people, was done in the Linstead area of St. Catherine on Wednesday, April 8.

The second one, which catered to at least 50 persons, took place at Middle Quarters in St. Elizabeth, where Taylor grew up before he migrated to Linstead when he was a teenager.

Taylor, who is now a general contractor overseas, stated that the initiative was supported by his friends in Canada, the United States, England and Jamaica.

He described the distribution of the care packages as timely, considering that many people are affected financially by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). “It is like something that the people were waiting for,” Taylor said.

He, in the meantime, made it clear that the Foundation and its work are not associated with any political party, adding that no politicking will be allowed.

“I didn’t want it to be a PNP or JLP stuff; I wanted it to be out of the hands of politics,” Taylor emphasized.

While steering clear of politics, the philanthropist appealed for business operators to support the next charity event that will be hosted by the Foundation. “We are preparing for December; we want to make it bigger,” he further said.

Taylor told The Beacon that plans are afoot to next time double the number of packages given away in Linstead and triple the number distributed in Middle Quarters.

He also used the opportunity to urge more people to share with each other especially in these challenging times.

“I feel good in myself to know that I can give to somebody; there is not a day that pass that I don’t give to somebody. If you can give to one person, you make a difference in a community. So you can just imagine if you can give to 100,” Taylor further reasoned.

One of the persons who helped to distribute the food packages in the Linstead area, Clement Dehaney, said the people were genuinely in need of the assistance.

“They were happy and overwhelmed with the little we gave them,” he further told The Beacon, adding: “It pains my heart to see how some elderly people are living, and if we come together in the interest of the people we can do much more.”

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