An insurance company has handed over $25,000 to cover this month’s cost of a church’s food programme.

Liberty Specialty Markets donated the cash to Christ Church Warwick’s meals scheme – the second time it has offered financial assistance.

Steve Horton, the president of Liberty Specialty Markets, said: “Since the pandemic started, we have been quite a big supporter of the Christ Church feeding programme, not only with money but also with volunteering.

“Last December, we gave enough money to pay for food for a month and we have done the same thing again for this December.”

David Thompson, who runs the Christ Church Warwick programme, said 120,000 meals had been cooked and handed out since the start of the pandemic.

The programme serves about 300 meals a day – some collected at the church and others delivered to families who had no transport.

Mr Thompson said: “While Covid is getting more under control, the economic impact of job losses has affected many families and we continue to help and support those in need.

“We want to thank the staff and management of Liberty Mutual for their kind and continued support – not only for the donation, because once a month they send a team of volunteers for one week to help us prepare and serve the meals.”

Staff at the company have also volunteered at the feeding programme every month since the start of the pandemic.

A Liberty Specialty Markets spokeswoman said that parent company Liberty Mutual had established “Feed for Need” as a charity priority, which tied in with the work already being carried out by Liberty Specialty Markets.

She added that the company recognised it had been fortunate but that many people had suffered because of the pandemic.

The spokeswoman said: “There was food insecurity before Covid-19 and now it’s about three times as bad and charities have been hard hit this year.

“There are so many charities, all deserving, and they are all trying to raise money.

“When Covid hit they lost a lot of their support for the simple reason that they can’t hold fundraising events.

“We, as a company in the community that really cares about Bermuda, asked ourselves how can we best serve our community and we focused on food security because it’s a basic necessity.”

The company had also made donations to the Salvation Army and Hamilton Rotary Club to support food programmes.