Feeding program gets boost from FirstCaribbean

The Petrocaribe money is rolling happily all over the country, and politicians are busy exchanging witty, sarcastic repartee over Christmas Cheer and the merry mortgage payment scheme. But while that happens, children in many schools attend classes hungry because they have no food at home. To address that problem, teachers and staff of schools are forced to implement feeding programs for the good of the children, but resources are very limited. And that’s where the First Caribbean International Bank has stepped up. Today the bank handed over invaluable donations to four schools…donations which will mean that more children who can’t get food at home, will be able to get at least one healthy meal at school.

Shaeleen Castillo, Manager, Retail Banking and Operations

Shaeleen Castillo

“What we have done is to reach out to certain schools and to find out what happens with their feeding programs and they presented to us what is basically their wish list. And so based on the schools that responded to us, the management of their feeding programs and the ones that we considered to be most needy, we narrowed down to four schools and we were able to meet what they had presented to us on their wish list.”

Mrs. Jesse, Ephesus Adventist School

“The program right now we are serving at least thirty-six needy children plus the other rest of the children in our school body. We are right now at one hundred and forty-three children at our school but the thirty-six, thirty-nine children who we feed daily are very needy, so we had the need of the stove…now we received the stove and if there is any other thing out there we would definitely welcome such gifts.”

Mrs. Jesse

Reporter

“Tell us about the children because a lot of people don’t understand the reality of children going to school without eating, going to school hungry. So tell us about how real that is to the teachers and staff at Ephesus.”

Mrs. Jesse

“This is real in the sense that whenever a child comes to school without their meal, what we see is that they will be acting out in different ways. Of course they will have headaches, and they will then be disruptive in class and they might not even know what it is, but the teacher would then pick up and say, child you had a meal today? Why are you behaving like that? And you would find that most of the time it’s because of lack of meals.”

The donation is valued at just over four thousand dollars. According to Castillo, the bank maintains contacts with groups who receive assistance through these programs, forging lasting and beneficial relationships, all with the aim of giving back to the community.