School lunch program victim of burglary
The epidemic known as crime does not seem to have any respect for our most revered institutions and traditions. This morning I visited a place where some heartless criminals are threatening to steal something so valuable that we had assumed it was thief-proof: an education.
Since 1995, the students of All Saints School have been benefiting from a feeding program that provides the children with a daily balanced meal at lunchtime. The program, which cost the boys and girls only a dollar a day, feeds close to one hundred students. Today, however, the program’s success has been threatened by a number of recent break-ins at the school.
Valarie Eiley, Local Manager, All Saints School
“Just today we were wondering should we close the program because they went in Saturday, they went in Sunday, they stole pots, and pans, the sack of rice, everything imaginable and it’s really discouraging. So what we are working on now is to secure the building but as usual funds are low and so we just keep on and I think they are breaking in every night.”
But the school’s canteen is not the only building that has been touched. Classrooms and even the church building have been burglarized. According to Valarie Eiley, the local school manager, the situation has gotten so bad, that morale at school is at an all time low.
Valarie Eiley
“We thought the building was secured because it has heavy wooden windows and they are bolted but they actually come and take crow bars and rip away those windows. The church as well has been hard hit. Yes, the church has been hard hit. We have a lot of louvers and each time we try to put a burglar bar at one window, they just continue to the next window.”
While the staff is hoping that security measures will help to alleviate the problem, the students are optimistic that a project, created by nine year old Raisa Staine, will not only bring much needed help to the school, but will stop the thieves from stealing their meal and school supplies.
Raisa Staine, 9 Years Old
“I think perhaps every school child that is going to school right now has experienced this type of vandalism that those people have caused.”
According to Staine, the program, dubbed “Taking a Stand Against School Break-ins,” will not only raise an awareness about the burglaries, but will raise funds to replenish the stolen items.
Raisa Staine
“First I was thinking about this big tag day. Well first we were thinking about ideals but then people didn’t want to come in and pay for their ideals, so we think about the tag and the tag is just to give a little contribution.”
In the meantime, teacher Rosalie Bell says they have had to borrow cooking utensils from church members in order for the feeding program to continue.
Rosalie Bell, Teacher, All Saints School
“The last time they came in, the first time that they came in, they went with the pots and the pans and the second time they came in, they went with all of the dishes and utensils and they even went with the things for the church like the wines, the stationaries, the pack of stationary with the letterheads.”
Bernice Cabral, who coordinates the feeding program, is one of the persons who has been lending her cooking utensils. Cabral says while at times she feels like giving up, she keeps struggling with the program because she cannot bear to watch another child go hungry at school.
Bernice Cabral, Coordinator, Feeding Program
“Oh yes, because some of the children are living so far. Some are way out, out of the city that come here, so they really need this feeding program.”
Q: “How do you manage to keep your spirits up?”
Bernice Cabral
“Well some days you just, when I come in here Sunday morning I feel well. I just tell them like we have to just close the program because we don’t have anything. The pressure cooker that we used to use, the pots, the spoons, the plates everything are gone.”
Today the staff and students of All Saints School are appealing to the general public to donate whatever they can to keep food on the table and the students’ minds on their education.
The tag day is set for October sixteenth and the public is urged to support the school’s efforts.
