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Karidat receives donation from BOG, Walmart
Bank of Guam and Karidat staff pose for a group photo after the BOG donated $20,028.52 to the charitable institution last Sept. 16, 2016. (Contributed Photo)
The Bank of Guam donated $20,028.52 to Karidat last Sept. 16, 2016. The Bank of Guam donation along with a recent $30,000 grant award from the Walmart Foundation through Catholic Charities USA will be used for the development and implementation of sustainable food bank.
The Corporation for National and Community Service, AmeriCorps VISTA also granted Karidat a “Volunteer In Service To America” (VISTA) volunteer to assist with the development, implementation, and evaluation of a food bank that addresses food security and climate change mitigation.
Karidat has maintained a food pantry since it opened in May 1980, which has been supplying people in need with donated food from local businesses and canned food drives from schools and civic organizations. Typhoon Soudelor, which hit Saipan on Aug. 2, 2015, exposed the need for a more robust food security program with the ability for remote community outreach. Many months after Saipan’s initial recovery from Soudelor, Karidat is still being inundated with requests for food assistance and realizes just how difficult it is for some to get around the island to ask for help. Therefore, a viable food security program is important especially with the risk of more frequent extreme weather events in the future likely due to climate change.
With its grant from the Walmart Foundation through Catholic Charities USA, Karidat was able to purchase a pick-up truck that will assist us with the pick-up and delivery of food to the more remote villages on Saipan. With the help of the VISTA Volunteer, Karidat is working to develop a sustainable food bank which that will include satellite food storage facilities in select villages on Saipan, as well as Rota, and Tinian.
Karidat is grateful for the recent donation from the Bank of Guam. Karidat will utilize Bank of Guam’s donation to purchase the equipment it needs to achieve its goal of a sustainable food bank that will not only address food security in the CNMI but be disaster ready too.
