ST. CROIX — The Virgin Islands Office of Management and Budget partnered with Catholic Charities of the Virgin Islands to distribute 300 Thanksgiving meals to the homeless and less fortunate today on St. Croix and St. Thomas.
OMB staff hosted the agency’s initiative at the Christian “Shan” Hendricks Market on St. Croix and Emancipation Garden on St. Thomas as recipients lined up to accept prepackaged turkey meals. It was OMB’s first year organizing the food distribution, which is slated to become an annual initiative.
Considering OMB shares a building in downtown Christiansted with the Department of Finance, it was only natural that Finance employees helped pass out the food on St. Croix.
Management and Budget Director Julio Rhymer Sr., while attending the event on St. Thomas, said the idea came about after he noticed so many homeless and less fortunate in the park across from the OMB office in Charlotte Amalie.
“Our offices are right across the street from Emancipation Garden, where we see an abundance of homeless that actually sleep in the park, or actually congregate in the park,” he said.
After asking his staff their thoughts on how OMB could assist the less fortunate in the community, Rhymer said they felt it was necessary to organize a feeding initiative to support those in need.
“I think it means the world to them because at least somebody cares,” Rhymer said. “As I told my employees, a government employee is not about service to just the actual government itself, but service to your community. And this is another level of actual service to our community — that we give back.”
Lester van Beverhoudt, who lives in a homeless shelter on St. Thomas, said it meant “a lot” to him to receive a Thanksgiving meal.
“I appreciate the hospitality of all these people here,” he said.
Catholic Charities, a faith-based nonprofit organization that assists and advocates for the underserved with a focus on the homeless, has clients in the community it delivers food to every day during the week. Those clients were picked up today and transported to town to participate in the feeding initiative, providing them an opportunity to socialize with each other.
“It was beautiful because I got to see people I haven’t seen in years,” Anisha Collins, a Catholic Charities client who was transported to the Hendricks Market from Estate Glynn, said. “It’s been nice.”
If Collins did not receive her daily meal from Catholic Charities, she said she would not eat.
“It’s a real blessing,” she said.
Not every client accepted the ride to attend the feeding initiative, so Catholic Charities loaded up all the leftover meals and delivered them to those individuals who did not make it in person. OMB and Catholic Charities were prepared to distribute 200 meals on St. Thomas and 100 on St. Croix.
The prepackaged meals on St. Croix, which were prepared by Chef Ozzie Catering, included a choice of turkey or salmon with rice, macaroni and cheese, fried plantain, and corn on the cob. Chef Ashley Allen Sr., of My Brother’s Workshop, prepared the plates on St. Thomas.
Nishawn Georges, Catholic Charities district manager for St. Croix, spoke about what it meant to the nonprofit to receive assistance from OMB in the distribution of food.
“It was special to me because I feel like the community haven’t been supporting us as much as they should, and so to see the community coming back to us — it’s a pleasure,” she said.
Brenda Charles, a case worker at Catholic Charities, spoke about how today’s feeding initiative was special in comparison to the food distribution she does daily during the week.
“I do this all year round, but this time coming around for Thanksgiving, I don't know, it always gives a joy in my heart to just come out and see all the homeless coming together and celebrating and having food and, you know, not feeling less fortunate, and we’re always giving back to them,” she said. “So, it gives me a joy in my heart because homelessness could happen to any one of us at any given time.”
Jamie Gaston, OMB federal grants manager, assisted with the food distribution on St. Croix. She said the event provided the agency’s staff with an opportunity to step out of the office and give back to those in the community who are less fortunate.
“We are here to serve the public, no matter what their status is,” she said. “Everybody is deserving.”
Keturah Nurse, a financial officer at the Department of Finance who helped pass out food on St. Croix, spoke about the importance of community outreach.
“I think it’s amazing to see the departments actually getting out there and doing these initiatives in the community, servicing our community,” she said. “You don’t see that too often and I think we should do that way more, so I’m really proud of us and our initiatives.”
