Giving Back: TravelPulse Canada Visits Royal Caribbean Community Projects In Nassau

During the inaugural cruise of Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas, media members were invited to go ashore in Nassau, Bahamas to tour some of the community projects the company supports through donations of cash or goods.

The tour began by stepping off the latest world's largest cruise ship and onto a catamaran for a short ride to the LJM Maritime Academy.

Motoring beside towering cruise ships really drove home the scale of today's floating vacation resorts.

The LJM Maritime Academy is a non-profit institution for higher learning in the maritime fields, and the first of its kind in The Bahamas, despite the country's long maritime history. A three-year Officer's program includes two years at the school and one at sea. Successful students are licensed to work anywhere in the world, on everything from tankers to mail boats, yachts to cruise ships.

Royal Caribbean funds scholarships and promises those who graduate "an automatic hire" as an officer on one of its ships. Greg Purdy, RCI's SVP Marine Operations, says he hopes an LJM scholarship recipient will be a Royal Caribbean Captain within a few years.

"We love employing people from the Caribbean. So we asked ourselves, why aren't we hiring marine people as well. We want more and we want to show there's no ceiling in the industry.

Royal Caribbean and the Bahamas Feeding Network came together nearly five years ago, when Vice President Russell Benford was introduced to its people and its mission.

"From the first time we saw the work of the Bahamas Feeding Network…we were super impressed," he said. With a staff of five and plenty of volunteers, the non-profit organization packs and distributes food parcels to more than 100 feeding centres, soup kitchens and community pantries, to the tune of 18,000 meals per week.

"At Royal Caribbean we are so incredibly appreciative just for the opportunity to be able to help and be a part of this. The Feeding Network is a beautiful organization."

Since its first donation of US$25,000, the cruise line has ramped up its support annually, first to $100,000, then in 2019, quadrupling it to $400,000. Royal Caribbean repeated that donation in 2020, despite the complete lockdown of the cruise industry following the COVID outbreak.

In summer 2021, when Royal Caribbean was restarting operations and homeporting in the Bahamas for the first time, the company donated twenty 40-foot containers filled with meat and groceries to the Bahamas Feeding Network. The donation was valued at US$1.5 million.

"We were blown away by the fact that even when they were totally shut down, they remained committed to helping feed the hungry," said Philip Smith, the organization's executive director.

The Access Accelerator Small Business Development Centre works to support the growth of micro, small and medium-sized businesses in The Bahamas. The group envisions a Bahamas where Bahamians can get into business and succeed."

Royal Caribbean has partnered with Access Accelerator to provide training and funding opportunities for small businesses in the tourism sector. The Royal Caribbean Programme includes a $250,000 contribution from the company which is being matched by the Bahamas government. The fund will be given in grants and loans ranging from $5,000 to $15,000, helping smaller businesses get a leg up.

Mama Sassy's Gourmet Foods is an Access Accelerator success story. A chance encounter with a 10-pound bag of goat peppers led home cook Cherelle Cartwright to create pepper jams and jellies that she first shared only with friends and family, until they encouraged her to spread the deliciousness.

After demand for her products took off, a grant from Access Accelerator enabled her to test five of her products in an FDA-approved lab in the United States. Her next target is supermarkets and gourmet food stores.

Last year, Cartwright, aka Mama Sassy, won a contest sponsored by Royal Caribbean and earned the opportunity to have her products featured on Royal Caribbean vessels and properties.

"It is a different ball game having to increase sauce production for Royal Caribbean," she stated. "Some would get intimidated, but I look at it as an obstacle to overcome, and I am not prepared to fail."

In a meeting with RCI President and CEO Michael Bayley, Bahamian Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis said: "Why don't you take an interest in Junkanoo, our unique cultural expression?" How could he say no? The result was a $100,000 Royal Caribbean donation to the Music Makers Junkanoo Group, providing financial stability for an important cultural resource.