JAMAICA: Increasing food costs wiping out effect of food subsidy

KINGSTON, Nov 07 (IPS) - Seventy-two year-old Dorothy Campbell (not her real name), stood silently in the queue at the social welfare office in this capital city. Like the other indigents, she was waiting patiently to collect her monthly food stamp of 2.72 dollars.

A worried look crossed her face as she seemed to mentally calculate just how much food she could purchase with so little in order to survive for the rest of the month.

For Campbell and many other elderly citizens here this is their only means of economic survival. But with the rising cost of basic food items, many find that what is coming to them through the Ministry of Welfare's food stamp programme is so little that they often go hungry.

Many of the elderly persons who stood in line at the welfare office said the food stamp subsidy was their only source of subsistence.

Others, however, particularly former civil servants, are more fortunate as under the National Pension Scheme, they receive a pension of between 2.12 and 3.93 dollars every two weeks. This, they say, supplements the food stamp subsidy.

But having to pay utility bills and other living expenses, many elderly persons who do not have relatives to support them financially are forced to go hungry some days.

The food stamp carries a monthly value for the most basic food items which include flour, sugar, oil and rice.

"This means that I have to buy the smallest quantity of these items and this has to last for the month until I collect the next payment," says Campbell.

One pound of flour is sold for 21 cents here, a pound of sugar for 27 cents.

Campbell added that while she could not have survived for so long without the welfare assistance, the amount is so small that there are times when she can only afford a bowl of porridge made from cornmeal.

"It is all I can afford and so I have had to be contented but there are times when I receive assistance from church members or others living in my community," says Campbell.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service