By Devon Evans, Gleaner WriterOCHO RIOS:
THE COUNTRY'S hurricane relief programme received a major boost on Tuesday, when National Meats and Food Distributors Limited handed over some $4.3 million worth of fully cooked frozen chicken breast strips to the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management.
The presentation which was made at the National Meats plants in Lydford St. Ann represents a joint initiative between the company and the American poultry giant Tyson Foods.
ODPEM, with the assistance of National Meats will be ensuring the proper distribution of the chicken islandwide to children's homes, schools and infirmaries that were most affected by Hurricane Ivan.
Managing Director of National Meats, David Phillips said Tyson Food must be commended for this donation and that it comes at a time when the affected institutions are facing a shortage of chicken meat.
Acting Deputy Director General of ODPEM Ronald Jackson was extremely pleased with the gift of chickens. "We have been getting a lot of food items but the protein side of things was not adequate and was limited to mainly tin products," he told The Gleaner.
