Complaints keep pouring in over free food program for isolated families

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Information provided by the American Samoa COVID-19 Task Force recently about free meals for people who are in home isolation is escalating the anger felt by some of those who were isolated but never received free meal delivery.

Over the past two weeks, the Task Force revealed during its daily briefing that the DOE School Lunch Program continues to deliver free meals to families who are in home isolation. One report stated that 179 free meals were delivered to several households while another report stated that 173 free meals were delivered to 78 households with some meals returned according to both reports.

The Task Force report did not specify the reason why these free meals were return back to the SLP main office.

Many families in home quarantine are raising a lot of questions about the home isolation process and the complicated issues they’re facing.

Some families have stated that it’s been over a week since they went into home quarantine and they haven’t receive any free food deliveries, while two other families told Samoa News that their church pastor is using his own money to buy supplies for their families.

Other family members in home quarantine are questioning the safety of other family members in the household and the limited information provided by health workers at the time of testing.

“I don’t know why these free meals have been returned while my family that was infected and isolated for 14 days never received any free meal delivery from the DOE school lunch,” one woman from Leone said.

“I kept calling the EOC number and the woman who answered the phone informed me that my family is not eligible for the free meal delivery because our home isolation period was over one week ago. But I starting calling the EOC number since Day One of our home isolation and now its [been] two weeks since our home isolation has been over but we still hasn’t receive any food delivery.”

A lady from Nu’uuli called Samoa News last week and explained that her family’s home isolation period is now over and since the beginning of the 14-day period of home isolation, they have been contacting the EOC for assistance but were told that the free meal delivery is for low income families only.

According to this lady, she considers her family to be low income because she’s the only breadwinner for the family to feed her 4 young children and her elderly mother.

“ ... but our neighbor, who is the sister of one of the directors and was also in home isolation, received free food delivery from the first day of their home isolation up until now. I’ve seen the SLP delivery van coming to our neighbor’s house to deliver free food even, though their home isolation expired last week,” the caller said.

According to this caller, she believes that is the reason why some family members, like herself, who were supposed to be quarantined, are showing up in public because they need supplies for their family — especially food. The DoH is not providing any food to these families, the disgruntled caller said.

She said they were promised by health workers during their tests that free meals for families in home isolation will be provided by the SLP under the supervision of the Task Force and the Department of Education (DOE).

Other family members who were also in home isolation don’t believe that it is the government’s obligation to provide free meals for family in home quarantine.

A woman told Samoa News that she and her husband were home-quarantined twice in Hawaii and there was no such thing as food delivery to them from the Hawaii Department of Health or DOE or from anybody else.

 “It’s much safer to have your own food prepared at home by your own family. Do you want our government to spoon-feed you?,” she asked, adding that no one gets free food if going into home quarantine rather than isolation.

Another member of the community said people shouldn’t rely on the government for tiny little things like this.

 “Our government is struggling because of the COVID and also trying to pay a lot of debts from previous administrations. Our leaders are trying to do their best to make sure the virus will stop and everyone will live happy. So, please, cook your own food and feed your own family. Do not depend on our government to feed you. This is not Great Britain or the United States of America. This is Amerika Samoa with lots of blessings from God surrounding us such as free coconuts, free breadfruit, bananas, taro, etc,” one man said.

Last Friday, Samoa News observed SLP employees delivering food to several families both on the east and west side of the island. One delivery van was spotted in Mesepa around 8a.m with 3 employees delivering free meals to several families.

Two SLP delivery trucks were spotted in the Nu’uuli area with several employees delivering free meals, while another delivery truck was spotted in Pago Pago around 9a.m.

Samoa News asked one of the SLP employees to explain the food delivery process to approved families. The employee said that all they do is follow the list that they are given by the office, and once all families on the list have been served with free meals, any remaining meals are returned to the SLP main office.

BACKGROUND

During a House Education committee hearing last month, Department of Education (DOE) director, Talauega Dr. Samasoni Asaeli confirmed that DOE is supplying food for each family in home quarantine. The food is from the School Lunch Program (SLP).

Talauega stated that DOE sought approval from the USDA to use the food supply from the SLP due to the community spread of the virus and was given the green light to do so.

Talauega said that the decision was to use the food supply instead of it going to waste.

Schools are currently not in the classroom, and food vouchers were issued to take care of students at home, as classroom learning is being done via the internet.