“Establish a Feeding programme” It’s at the top of
any charitable organization’s list of things to do. But when the police
do it – it’s not only feeding hungry mouths, its building confidence
with an impressionable section of the population. To understand what we’d
mean, you’d have to venture into those areas of the city where police
are called Babylon – and are seen as the bad guys. In some cases, that
bad rap is justified – and even when it’s not, it’s still
applied. But when the hand that feeds – is covered with a khaki sleeve
– that positive PR in a meaningful way. And that’s why for two years
police have tuck to the practice of feeding schoolchildren every other day at
the Yabra Community Policing Center. They celebrated their second anniversary
yesterday and Jacqueline Godwin was there to lend a hand.
Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
Looking at the large number of children who crowded into every seat available
inside the Yabra Community Policing Centre, you would never believe that these
boys and girls do not have access to feeding programmes. The truth is not all
primary schools offer meals to their students and many of their families simply
do not have the money to buy them food. It is these children that the Yabra
Community Policing Unit targets. The boys and girls receive a free lunch three
times a week. Wednesday was the second anniversary of the programme.
Douglas Hyde, Youth Program Coordinator
“We recognized earlier on when we started this program that there
was the need and some of the schools do have their feeding programs but some
of the other schools that are around here don’t have and so we established
the feeding program addressing some of the kids that are not attending no feeding
program to be a part of this feeding program.”
Wednesday’s lunch had the biggest turnout, over one hundred children
enjoyed a meal. There were so many mouths to feed that I had no choice but to
help feed the kids.
Sgt. Dianne Williams, Community Police Unit – Belize City
“These feeding programs go for eight months during school time, three
times for the week; Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. The zone officers,
they go and speak to the principals, the principals identify the needy, and
they inform them that we have a feeding program and the students come. Sometimes
they bring along a friend and because we are so kind hearted, we do not turn
the children away. We feed whosoever they bring along with them.”
Douglas Hyde,
“Some of the kids in this neighbourhood, they do not see a healthy
meal for the day. So by us providing that aspect, at least address that issue
of not eating food for the day, they have a healthy meal for the day to eat.
And so we also look at it academically because if you are not eating then you
are not thinking and so it is important. If that kid has a belly filled for
the afternoon and he goes back to school, at least he will think, he will focus
better, and basically from past successes we’ve seen that less kids are
dropping out and the kids are developing. So for a second year we see kids who
were in standard one go to standard two and they develop and move on and that’s
something good. That is what we are promoting, decrease the issue of dropout
and hope the kids are motivated to stay in school more and this is just one
aspect of that.”
And from the look on these children’s faces they got a belly-ful
from this literally hearty serving. Reporting for 7News Jacqueline Godwin.
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