The Waitrose & Partners Foundation has unlocked £ 200,000 from its Global Fund to protect farming community oversea adversely affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic . The initiative was set up to support its most vulnerable suppliers and ply financial assistance to over 100,000 workers during this unprecedented period .
icon mention : Adrienne Pitts
The package will include £ 88,000 in keep to Waitrose ’s supplier in Kenya , with whom Farm Africa has been put to work since partnering with the Waitrose & Partners Foundation in 2017 .
Together , Farm Africa and the Waitrose & Partners Foundation have been creating better livelihoods for doer and their fellowship that grow , pick and package Waitrose ’s fresh green goods across seven farms in Kenya . The joint project has been improving health and wellbeing facilities of 12,000 employees and their families , increase their access to water and sanitisation facility and supporting their learning through training and schooltime feeding program .
The new fund will avail spring up health care and sanitation measure to prevent the bed covering of COVID-19 and protect farm worker . They will also be used to improve workers ’ admission to essential service such as health care and child care and patronage those on trim back earnings through food packages .
Rupert Thomas , Director of Food & Grocery at Waitrose , point out : “ This pandemic present the greatest humanitarian and economic threat of our propagation and , whilst we face up many unmanageable decisions , as a collective industriousness we must retain to take care at ways we can serve to protect people and their livelihoods during this unprecedented clock time . The measures we have put in place are just the start and we will go on to do everything we can to furnish financial support to our supplier and the people who form part of them , particularly those that are most vulnerable . ”
Due to precariousness around the longer - term impact of COVID-19 , the foundation has also reserve emergency funding to allow for ongoing to support communities and ensure the stability of its supply range of mountains , should this be needed .
Peter Ndungu , Project Coordinator at Farm Africa , commented : “ The COVID-19 pandemic is shoot Kenyan farm workers severely . The funding from the Waitrose & Partners Foundation will facilitate raise workers to safely implement societal distancing and take in access to essential service for their family during the crisis . ”
For more informationFarm Nartionhttps://www.farmafrica.org/
Anarticle on the Nation.co.kesays that seven Kenyan gardening farms will benefit from a Sh11 million emergency fund provided by Waitrose . According to them , the beneficiaries are Flamingo Mt Kenya , Flamingo Naivasha , Oserian , Kenya Horticultural Exporters ( KHE ) , Tambuzi , Ravine and Simbi Roses .
