Helping the needy with a timely reminder of goodwill to all is top of the agenda for the volunteers from the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Cayman.

ADRA members have been very busy, quietly collecting non-perishable food donations from shoppers as they exit the various Fosters supermarkets across the island.

Dean Evans, Deputy Director for ADRA Cayman, said: “We do a lot of community aid relief, hurricane disaster relief and community development programmes with an emphasis on spiritual Christian development. “We are a non-profit, and non-denominational organisation – in that ADRA is run by Seventh-day Adventists but serves the greater community overall – you do not have to be an Adventist to benefit from our various community outreach programmes.”

“On a routine basis, we put together a team to identify the need in the community with a particular emphasis to the elderly and indigent persons – that is, people who are sick, unemployed, or otherwise unable to be serviced by their own means,” he explained.

“There is a tremendous need out there as we approach the holidays. What we decided to focus on this year is to assist such persons with non-perishable food supplies for the Christmas season. It’s that time of year when persons look forward to having that sense of love and appreciation by others, and we seek to meet that need by offering a food basket to many families out in the Cayman community” Mr Evans continued.

The ADRA 2011 food drive involves mobilising Adventist volunteers throughout the Cayman Islands:  “We have 14 churches throughout the island and one in Cayman Brac as well, and we mobilise our District Coordinators to identify the elderly and indigent in their respective neighbourhoods that would have need of an ADRA gift offering,” he said.

For their 2011 Christmas-season food drive ADRA have teamed up with all the Foster’s supermarkets, who approved ADRA members to stand at their supermarket entrances to receive food donations from with shoppers. There has also been help from another food wholesaler, who have donated a palette of non-perishable food, Mr. Evans said.