When eight-year-old Cayman Prep Elementary School student Lucas Burke learned of the Cayman Food Bank's struggle to meet the needs of families in need, he set out on a mission to collect supplies and donated 900 items for donation. I gathered all the groceries on my own.
Together with his school friends, he collected a total of 13,156 food items for the food bank through a food drive challenge set up by teacher Robert Watt.
Cayman Prep teacher Robert Watt, who started the food drive, is pictured with students Lucas Burke (8 years old), Hannah Jackson (9 years old), and Anna Lane (9 years old). All helped collect over 13,000 food items for the Cayman Food Bank during a special food drive in the Cayman Islands. this month at an elementary school in Georgetown. – Photo: Reshma Raghunath
In an interview with the Cayman Compass on Friday, Burke said he had the support of his parents for the initiative and knew it was the right thing to do.
“They may not have enough food, but we have a lot of food. So maybe we can help them and give them some of our food. ” Burke said, explaining why she wanted to help.
spread joy
Burke's class, 4C, emerged as the winner of last week's challenge and was rewarded with a pizza party and extra playtime.
Classmate Hannah Jackson, 9, said the party was fun, but filled with joy at being able to donate to charity.
“I felt so happy because I felt like I was helping others,” she said, adding that no child should be without food.
She said when she goes to the grocery store with her mother, she is also able to pick up items to donate.
Cayman Prep students after a successful food drive. – Photo: Supplementary
Jackson encouraged other children to think of others and share when they can.
“Other people don't have as much food, and it's just as important for them to have food as it is for you,” she said.
Watt, who started the work as a way to give back to the community after becoming a permanent resident, said she wanted to support food banks after reading about their plight in a recent Compass article, and said she wanted to support food banks because of the demand for food assistance. emphasized the rise.
amazing results
He said he asked students to bring in a total of 2,088 items, or roughly four items per student, and was stunned when he saw the final tally at the end of the two-week trip.
“I thought we would at least achieve the original number, but I never expected it to be more than six times as big.It was unbelievable.The school got really excited.The kids got really excited.'' “I'm excited about it and it's gone much further than I expected,” Watt said.
He said this was the school's first large-scale food drive and he was very proud of the response from the students and their families.
He said children also bring in food for donation at the Harvest Festival every year.
The Cayman Food Bank team was on hand to announce the winners of the challenge at last week's school assembly.
The food bank team also spoke to children at the assembly about why charity work is so important and how they can show kindness and compassion when helping others.
The children helped load supplies for the food bank's trek to its industrial park headquarters.
Watt said the food bank had to go to the school three times to collect all the supplies.
Children from Cayman Prep lined up to drop off donated items.
“It was an amazing sight,” said Naomi Law of the Cayman Food Bank.
Student Anna Lane, 9, said she was proud to see how many groceries her classmates brought in for charity and was happy to help.
“It makes me so happy because I feel like I’m helping other people and making them happy,” she said.
Watt said what has been rewarding about the initiative is that it has given children an understanding of what is going on around them in their communities, outside the bubbles of school and home.
Cayman Food Bank Manager Gene Eden (left) with Watts and Cayman Prep students. After collecting some of the more than 13,000 food items. – Photo provided by:
“I also became more aware of what the needs of the community were,” he said.
Thrown Gauntlet
Ms Watt is calling on other schools in Cayman to get involved, and her efforts to support the food bank are far from over.
“We would love for you to try and beat our numbers. We want more schools to participate, we want more schools to support our community,” he said.
Roe also encouraged other schools to follow suit and host food drives before the summer when “the need will spike again.”
“This is primarily because students who would have been able to get meals at school are no longer receiving that support, and that demand is coming to us,” she added.