October 17, 2011 – Kingston, Jamaica…Phillip E. L. Castell/EJC
The Washington Gardens Seventh-day Adventist Church lead by the Community Services department made good on its promise to provide free meals to the students of the Clarion Basic School.
The feeding program for the children, organized to coincide with the “Week of Generosity” activities planned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica, took place October 11.
Meric Walker, pastor of the Washington Gardens Church, said the Church fed approximately 80 students at the Clarion Basic School.
“This is a continuation of what we always do, but we are intensifying this today based on the Adventist Church island-wide emphasis of doing acts of kindness during “Week of Generosity,” Walker said.
Walker said they chose the school because churches often reach out to adults rather than children.
“We have a program where we feed the elderly and we have been relating to some of the people who live on the street, but rarely do we zoom in on the smaller children at this age level,” Walker said. “These children will become the leaders of tomorrow and we want to ensure that they are not short-changed.”
“This has not happened to us for quite a while and we are grateful,” said Elaine Coward-Barnes, a teacher at Clarion Basic.
Principal of the School Jennifer Smith expressed gratitude to the Washington Gardens Adventist Church for fulfilling its promise to the school.
“As you know, we are in an inner city community and we are usually being made promises which are never fulfilled”, said Smith. “I am really, really grateful to the Adventist Church for providing these cooked lunches. We welcome your assistance and we would appreciate if you can come on board to help the school in any way you can.”
The school Clarion Basic School has an average attendance of 75 students per day and is located at 13 Clarion Road, Marverly, Kingston 20.
