Karidat wants sustainable food pantry

The lack of a viable and sustainable food source is one of the major concerns Karidat Social Services wants to address this year, according to its executive director, Lauri B. Ogumoro.

“Our biggest concern is giving food to those in need. We’re trying to get our food pantry up and running and sustainable. We’d like to do that because there seems to be a great need,” she told Saipan Tribune last Friday after the non-profit accepted a donation from the United Filipino Organization.

Ogumoro said Karidat doesn’t really operate a true food bank because it has no food to store for long periods of time.

“We get food and, in just a matter of three days, it’s gone. We really don’t advertise if we have food in the food bank; it’s just through the ‘coconut wireless.’ A lot of people do call up [asking if there’s food].”

Unlike in the U.S. mainland, the concept of a food bank or food pantry is alien in the CNMI because of the logistics of shipping items to the islands.

“We don’t need a warehouse at this rate and we’re kind of discovering it’s hard to have a food bank here because everything is shipped in and people don’t really order a lot of extra stuff that they’re not going to sell. So it’s not like there’s an overabundance of extra food,” she said.

Asked what type of food items Karidat needs, Ogumoro said canned food and non-perishable items are on the top of the list. They also accept sacks of rice, which they usually repack to give out.

She admits that the process of distributing food needs to be more efficient, as they only require their clients to fill out a form and the amount of food they get is based on the number of family members.

“We have to be stricter, though, in verifying,” said Ogumoro.

Aside from donations, Karidat also gets money from Compact impact funding, which is money given annually to Hawaii, Guam, and the CNMI for hosting migrant Micronesians.

“Depending on how many Micronesians we serve, we get reimbursed by the U.S. government. It actually gives it to the CNMI government and they distribute it to us based on the number of Compact impact folks we serve.”

Ogumoro said Karidat also gets money if they beg for it from the Legislature.

“If we say we’re really short on funding for, like the women’s shelter (Guma Esperanza), they usually come in and help. Individual congressmen are really good in giving us some money as well.”

Another source of funding are federal grants, which Ogumoro said they have to write themselves and funds the salaries of all 14 of its staff—five at the Karidat office in Chalan Piao and nine at the Guma Esperanza.

Karidat is a Northern Mariana Islands social services organization. It operates under the Archdiocese of Chalan Kanoa and was originally a project of bishop emeritus Thomas Camacho.

Aside from its social services operations, Karidat also runs the Guma Esperanza, which is a shelter for abused women and children.

Karidat is located in the 1st floor of the VSS Sablan Building, Chalan Piao. For more information about Karidat, call 234-6981.