The Hands of Love charity in Bermuda is hoping to one day open the Island's first ever food bank to assist the homeless and families in need.

Founder and chairwoman Fern Wade said that the organisation helped about 20 families every day by handing out canned food and necessities.

But she said with only two small units to work out of and eight volunteers, the charity was always pushed to the limit. However, one day it hoped to expand.

Mrs. Wade was the guest speaker at the Hamilton Lions Club luncheon when she said the vision of the ministry was to expand, so that it could help all members of the community, including seniors.

She said at the moment, it assisted the homeless and needy, as well as provided some back to basic socialising and play for children.

But the charity worker said the need in Bermuda was growing as people increasingly lost their manners, self respect, and care of others.

She said: "Our vision is that we will have one large ministry one day. We hope one day to have a huge warehouse - we even hope to open Bermuda's first food bank.

"In Bermuda, we are helping 20 families a day with canned goods and things like that."

And she said there were also the teen mothers, who needed help with cribs, diapers and baby food.

She added: "We have two places, but we want to have some place large, where we can combine everything to help other people."

Mrs. Wade claimed computers and the internet had led to the breakdown of the family and much that was good in Bermuda.

She said Bermuda had to stop concentrating on the gross national product, and instead put its efforts in the gross national people.

She said the charity, which was launched in 1991 to help provide food and clothing to those in need, has also started the Yummy Tummy Treats group, which is a safe haven for young people to play between the ages of four and 16.

"The reason for that age is because in our community, it seems that manners and self respect, and respect for others and property does not matter anymore in Bermuda," she said.

"Sitting down as a family does not seem to be the norm today. In an age where everything is computerised - everything is the Internet - our young people can't even think without a calculator. We are becoming computerised individuals.

"We have to get back to being a family - getting back to sitting down and communicating with our children, playing games with our children, reading with our children, taking our children to the park."

Mrs. Wade said the Yummy Yummy Treats programme enabled children to play outdoors, go camping and climb trees. She said it was designed to get children thinking for themselves again, and gave them simple, non-computerised toys to play with, such as Lego, ropes and jacks.

For more information about the charity, or its programmes, call Mrs. Wade on 238-7368.