IHS Young Leaders launch breakfast feeding programme

The Intermediate High School (IHS) RBC/RBTT Young Leaders began their school breakfast feeding programme last Tuesday, March 11th and principal at that school Bernadette Slater-Peters thinks that this initiative will benefit the children in more ways than one.{{more}}

The breakfast feeding programme, which is geared towards aiding students who cannot afford a proper meal, is part of the group’s 2013/2014 Young Leaders project.

The IHS Young Leaders launched their 2013/2014 project on Monday, February 24th at the school’s compound at McKies Hill, under the sub-theme: “Socio-economic diversity – Varying family structures, collective strengths, bridging the gap to benefit all.”

The main theme is “Diversity, the 21st century imperative.”

As part of the project, five students are being given breakfast, free of charge, Monday to Friday, while others are being charged $1.

Principal Slater-Peters who has nutrition and dietetic training, said that apart from bad eating habits she has observed at the school, investigations have shown that a lot of the children come to school without breakfast and as a result are unable to function properly.

 “I was very glad when the Young Leaders came up with this idea, because too many students come without eating breakfast and are unable to hold up and pay attention…they have a short attention span and cannot concentrate and their general performance is low because of their situation; so, providing breakfast will definitely help them,” said the principal.

 Slater-Peters said that the program will also help with the late coming of students, as they have to be at the school by a certain time in order for them to get breakfast, while the Young Leaders who are helping prepare the meal also have to be present earlier.

 The breakfast also includes a fruit.

 “The Young Leaders are providing a healthy breakfast and we also feel that the students will come to school earlier to get the breakfast,” said Slater-Peters, who added that the school’s tuck shop does not provide breakfast and, “so far, we have had to turn back children; the demand is great.”

Coordinating teacher of the IHS Young Leaders Kimberley Young-Compton said that the idea for the breakfast program came up during a brainstorming session with the Young Leaders group.

 “We realized that our school had a lot of under privileged children who came to school without breakfast. If they are hungry, they can’t focus and breakfast is said to be one of the most important meals of the day; hence this program,” said Young-Compton.

 She added that the program is well received and the students look forward to the breakfast.

 “We have a huge demand and we are hoping to make the program better,” said the coordinating teacher.

 Meanwhile, IHS Young Leader president Orlicia King said that her classmates usually consume a lot of carbonated beverages and fried foods and she is hoping that the program can also address this issue.