Mt Hagen Hospital was blessed with food and vegetables recently when the Dei District Administration in Western Highlands made a surprise visit and donated the food items.

The items included kaukau, taros, yams, bananas, cabbages and other vegetables.

The food items were part of a collection of food and vegetables that had been collected by the people of Western Highlands to donate to the people of Hela Province who had been affected by the February 26 earthquake.

The Western Highlands Provincial Disaster Committee had asked all the four districts of the province to organise their own collection of food, cash and kind and bring them to the Provincial Headquarter in Mt Hagen to deliver to Hela.

Unfortunately the Committee had deferred the delivery of the food items to a later date, resulting in the Dei District donating what it had collected to Mt Hagen Hospital as the garden produce could not be kept for a longer period.

The Management of the Western Highlands Provincial Health Authority was surprised to receive such donation without notice and thanked the people of Dei for their kind gesture.

Acting Director for Public Health, Dr Madison Dat thanked the District Administration and people of Dei for the donation and said the vegetables would supplement processed food such as rice and tinned fish and meat that was cooked for the patients each day.

He said feeding patients with garden produce as well as processed food was good for their health as it was a balanced diet and he urged other like-minded groups with a heart for giving to do the same.

The donation was witnessed by senior staff of both the Western Highlands Provincial Health Authority and the Dei District Administration.