Govermnent says it still needs more food donations

Mary Karooro Okurut, the head of the government donations task force has said that government still needs food donations despite all the donations that they have received.

Okurut said that by the close of this week, government will put in place a number for people who want to donate but fail to make it physically.

Okurut made these remarks while appearing on NBS Television’s Morning Breeze, Thursday morning.

"We still need food donations. As soon as the food reaches, it is given out because there is need out there," Okurut told NBS TV.

Okurut however thanked Ugandans who have been selfless and contributed to the donations taskforce with food, essential products such as sanitizers, soap, drinking water among others.

"We are in this together. We need whatever support that can be gathered because the shs 305 billion budget cannot cater for everything."

Okurut said that their mandate as the task force is to raise funds mainly to buy vehicles.

"Every district should at least have 10 vehicles for the health sector. Apart from that, when the president sounded this appeal, the response we are getting is tremendous. People are bringing in food and vehicles. There is need for all because we have vulnerable groups out there," Okurut added.

Meanwhile, the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) task force team leader Col. Felix Abucha on Tuesday revealed that government had temporarily halted food distribution due to lack of beans.

State Minister for Disaster Preparedness and Refugees Musa Ecweru said on Wednesday that the first supplier called Aponye Company was stopped from supplying more beans because of quality issues and that government had got a new supplier.

Ecweru also said that the door to door delivery approach that government was using was bringing a delay and that they had appointed more officials and staff to distribute food simultaneously in different areas.

Ecweru revealed by Wednesday, 28,384 households (91940 people) had been served.