On Friday, Jan. 5, ahead of the reopening of school, members of the Lightning Aquatics Swim Club (LA) made a donation of food items to support the Des Barras Combined School’s breakfast programme.

“Mission Possible: Healthy Breakfast, Healthy Child” is the first in a series of activities under the club’s 2018 LA Brings Smiles initiative.

According to LA President Tessa Charles-Louis, when members learned of the challenges of the school feeding programmes in Saint Lucia, the club decided to assist.

“In 2017 the club was informed of the plight of the school feeding programme in infant and primary schools in Saint Lucia. We were saddened to learn that daily, thousands of children go without breakfast and sometimes lunch and that the schools do not have sufficient resources to assist. With the Ministry of Education’s blessing we decided to partner with the Des Barras Combined School to provide breakfast for 25 students for the second school term commencing January 2018 and ending March 2018.”

The school’s principal, Mr. Ezra Joseph, received the items on the school’s behalf. He expressed sincere thanks to Lightning Aquatics for selecting the school. The principal went on to say that one of the worst nightmares for a teacher is to teach students who have come to school on empty stomachs, and as such, the donation will go a long way to remedy the problem.

Lightning Aquatics Swim Club is focused on enhancing the abilities of its swimmers and to provide opportunities to compete locally and regionally. It also committed to providing numerous opportunities which will ingrain in its members the importance of lending a helping hand to those most in need.