IHS Young Leaders assist families with food supplies

The Intermediate High School’s (IHS) RBC/RBTT Young Leaders have come to the assistance of a number of their less fortunate peers with the distribution of food supplies recently.{{more}}

The food supplies, mostly canned items, were given to eight families. The canned products were the proceeds of a Saturday, April 5 charity event dubbed, “Yes we can fest,” which was put on by the IHS Young Leaders on the school’s compound at Mc Kies Hill.

Persons gained entry into the venue by bringing three cans of food or paying EC$10. Some of this money was used to purchase food items like flour, rice, sugar and macaroni, among other things.

The “Yes we can fest” and the food distribution forms part of the group’s 2013/2014 RBC/RBTT Young Leaders project and complements the Young Leaders breakfast program, which feeds the school’s less fortunate students.

One of the Young Leaders’ coordinating teachers Kimberly Young-Compton said that the young leaders took the food to the communities where the school’s needy children live.

“We wanted the food distribution to go directly to their homes to benefit them, as well as their entire household,” said Young-Compton.

The can-fest, the breakfast programme and the food distribution fit the IHS Young Leaders’ adopted theme, “Socio-economic diversity – Varying family structures, collective strengths, bridging the gap to benefit all.”

The group’s president Orlicia King said that the group which she leads was very excited to make the donations a reality.

“We are glad that we can help those who need it,” she said on April 23, while handing out supplies in Buccament.

Meanwhile, Jacqueline Hendrickson, the mother of two children who attend the IHS and live at Acres Corner Village, Buccament, said that they were happy for the supplies.

“We are very happy; there are four kids here and it’s hard sometimes. I’ve tried to get a job on numerous occasions and can’t, so we are grateful to the Young Leaders,” said Hendrickson.

She added “this is very important to us because I have real difficulties in providing and sometimes the children can’t have three meals a day.”

She added that while the family is on the public assistance programme, EC$200 a month, “that money we are thankful for, but it can’t get everything that we need.”

The IHS’s 2013/2014 RBC/RBTT Young Leaders launched their project on Monday, February 24 at the school.

This year, schools are doing their project under the theme “Diversity, the 21st century imperative.”