For many families in Vanuatu, home-grown fruit and vegetables provide daily sustenance. Cyclone Pam changed that — with rain, wind and salt water destroying many vegetable gardens and fruit trees.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are continuing to donate and distribute food to families and communities in need.
Next week two shipping containers of food will be sent to the island of Tanna where communities are still recovering from the cyclone.
In addition to food items, the containers will include empty plastic buckets to be used to carry fresh water to homes, as well as 29 boxes of clothing.
Port Vila-based Latter-day Saint, John Bennion, says the aid “has been a great help to our people. We thank all those who have donated, and assisted in the shipment and distribution of relief supplies. We are grateful that the Church can act in providing relief to our people.”
More relief supplies are expected to arrive early next week when two containers will arrive from Tonga and Samoa. Both contain food crops donated by Latter-day Saints from their home gardens.
It will take some months for Vanuatu families to harvest any crops from their own gardens again. Donated food will continue to sustain life for thousands of people in Vanuatu until they can once again eat their own home-grown food.