SFA, Apas extend a hand to residents of North East Point regional home |15 October 2021
In commemoration of World Food Day which is observed globally on October 16, the Seychelles Fishing Authority has over the course of the past couple of weeks extended a hand to orphans and senior citizens residing in state-operated facilities across Mahé, through food donations.
It was yesterday that the team handed over the donations to the 110 residents of the North East Point Regional Home, in a brief ceremony held at the facility during the afternoon.
They were joined by representatives of the Agricultural Producers Association Seychelles (Apas) in donating to the home.
According to development and assessment manager and head of department at the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) Ronny Antat, the organisation observes the day annually, and have since last year extended activities to include persons within the population who may not necessarily be able to access their other activities.
“Since last year we have organised activities of such nature, and last year we covered all the orphanages on Mahé. This year we looked into the possibility of expanding to elderly homes, so we dedicated last week to covering all orphanages on Mahé, and this week all elderly homes on Mahé. This is to promote the consumption of local fish, and give them an opportunity to explore the different recipes and meals that can be done with fish. Especially for children, we know that they do not necessarily enjoy fish, so we wanted to give them a different experience to what they are used to eating, recipes that will encourage them to eat more fish. The feedback from the orphanages is that they appreciated it and they are asking when we can repeat this,” said Mr Antat.
“I am really satisfied and appreciate how we were received. We will look into how we can organise such activities in future. At SFA we have a post-harvest and value addition section, and our aim is to promote value-addition with regard to fisheries and fisheries-related products, and we also place a lot of emphasis on under-valued fish species, so we deal with how to introduce processing, and how to promote processing of fish, and consumption. As we already have a state-of-the-art facility, we thought to do it ourselves,” Mr Antat noted.
The meals donated include octopus salad, grilled fish, mung beans in coconut milk, and caramel as dessert, all of which were prepared by the development chefs at SFA’s state-of-the-art facility, at which fisheries and fisheries-related products and recipes are developed to encourage market entrants.
Yesterday’s donations to homes in the northern region of Mahé concludes the entity’s external activities organised for this year.
In addition to the meals, the SFA team was also joined by Apas representatives who joined them in donating a good selection of locally produced fruits and vegetables, including coconuts, papayas, chillies, cucumbers, tomatoes, aubergines, yams, sweet potatoes, chayote and cabbage. Locally-produced chicken were also handed over to nurse in charge of the facility, Mirena Souris.
Ms Souris, in conveying thanks to the organisations, said she is especially thankful that SFA prepared Creole-based meals for the residents, as they rarely get the occasion to enjoy typical Creole food.
She expressed heartfelt gratitude on behalf of residents, staff and herself as management, launching a plea to both SFA and Apas to keep the residents in mind in future, particularly Apas, to support the residents with fruits, as they are only able to access a very limited variety, through the supplier which provides the facility with meals.
In turn, chairperson of Apas, Barry Nourrice, responded positively, affirming Apas’ support for the initiative.
“It goes without saying that we will assist the home in future. As Apas, we welcome the initiative as we realise that we can all end up in a home one day and it is important to treat others as you would like to be treated. She extended towards us a plea for generous donations and we are ready and willing to respond to the plea and we will put this before our executive committee. In seasons where produce is abundant it will definitely work, but for other produce such as papayas, sometimes the market is too saturated and goes to waste, so we can definitely come up with a structure by which we can make the fruits available to Skychef which supplies the homes with meals, for the residents to enjoy as part of their daily diets,” Mr Nourrice stated.
Each year, Apas organises a couple of activities to commemorate World Food Day. Members wanted to complement the efforts of SFA, and managed to successfully do so through the generosity of members who pull together to realise such activities.
“The farmers are really generous in communicating to our members. Apas has its members and our executive group where we communicate with our members, and they come forward and bring the materials. We have our headquarters at Anse Royale where all the members bring the produce at one point in time, and some people make the kapatya to give it that Creole touch,” Mr Nourrice added.
The Grand Anse branch of the association will today be at the Plaisance elderly home, whereby they will be helping to re-embellish the fruit and vegetable garden, to be maintained by the retired agricultural producers residing at the home.
The accompanying photographs show highlights of the handover ceremony as well as the donated items.
Laura Pillay
