By Admin. Updated 10:20 a.m., Sunday, December 31, 2023, Atlantic Standard Time (GMT-4).
Senator in the House of Assembly and lawyer – Israel Bruce is handing out end-of-year care packages to the elderly and shut-ins in the South Central Windward area.
Mr. Bruce and his team began distributing scores of packages yesterday (December 30) for the 2023 holiday season.
One News SVG contacted Mr. Bruce after he made a Facebook post showing the eye-catching packing of the bags holding the care items, and he said the distribution is an annual one.
Senator Bruce who is the New Democratic Party’s Caretaker for South Central Windward explained why he decided to distribute the packages to the elderly.
He said the project to distribute the care packages to shut-ins started some 6-7 years ago.
“I’ve been doing it every year since. It’s me living up true to the suggestion that the season is a season of giving and sharing,” he said.
“Each year, we give a package to every shut-in. It does not matter the political affiliation of those persons,” he added.
“And I know some persons might say you’re doing it because that might translate into votes or something of that sort. That may be a conclusion that someone may want to arrive at, but I’ll tell you what: I contested elections in 2020, didn’t succeed at the polls, and within a week or two after the elections, I was busy up and down making sure I’m putting together packages to go out to persons even though I had not won the elections,” Mr. Bruce said.
“I did it in 2022, and here I am in 2023 again, Ans I will continue to do it. To me, it’s part of humanity and part of who I am quite naturally and genuinely,” he added.
Also of note is the design of the bag that holds the items. The reusable bag carries an eye-catching design with the environmental message – “Keep SVG Clean”.
He said: “The bags were selected because the last few years we did this event we used regular black plastic bags to pack the items in, and I was not impressed with that, so I wanted to make sure we had something that was more appealing to the eyes”.
“This time, the packaging is a lot better. It’s costing more, but it’s a lot better. Each package reflects the name and the flag of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the message of keeping St. Vincent and the Grenadines clean. So, it was in the particular vein that I went preferably for that design of a bag, and the colour scheme of the bag is reflective of the festive season that we are in,” he said.
He said the food items in the bags are those to meet the needs of the senior citizens.
The items include flour, milk, rice, lentil peas, salt biscuits, tea bags, sugar, oats/corn meal/
macaroni, noodles, cooking oil, ketchup, toilet paper, breeze, blue soap/sweet soap, Colgate, sardine, and tuna.
He said the package distribution came on the heels of another event to recognize the contributions of young people, including students who passed the 2023 CPEA examination.
One News SVG 