When 8-year-old Cayman Prep Primary School student Lucas Burke learned of the Cayman Food Bank’s struggle to meet the demands of families in need, he set off on a mission to gather supplies and singlehandedly collected 900 food items for donation.
He, along with his schoolmates, gathered a whopping total of 13,156 food items for the food bank through a food drive challenge launched by teacher Robert Watt.
Burke, speaking with the Cayman Compass Friday, said, he got his parents support for the initiative and knew it was right thing to do.
“They might not have enough food and we have a lot of food, so maybe we could help them and give them some of our food,” Burke said as he explained why he wanted to help.
Spreading joy
Burke’s class, 4C, emerged as the winners of the challenge last week and were treated to a pizza party and extra play time as a reward.
Classmate Hannah Jackson, 9, said while the party was fun, she was filled with a feeling of joy being able to donate to the charity.
“It made me really happy because it made me feel like I was helping another person,” she said, adding that no child should not have something to eat.
She said when she went to the grocery store with her mom so she could pick up items to donate as well.
Jackson encouraged other kids to think of others and share when they can.
“Other people don’t have that much food, and it’s important for them to have food as well as you,” she said.
Watt, who started the drive as a way to give back to the community after receiving his permanent residency, said he was moved to help the Food Bank after reading about their plight in a recent Compass article, highlighting the increased demand for food support.
Surprising result
He said he challenged the students to bring in a collective total of 2,088 items, roughly 4 per student, but at the end of the two-week drive, he was stunned to see the final tally.
“I figured that we’d at least be able to hit the initial number, but I had no idea that we’d times it by more than six. It was incredible. The school really got on board. The kids were really fired up and excited, and it went a lot further than what I thought it would,” Watt said.
He said this was the first major food drive for the school and he was so proud of the students and the response from their families.
He said, every year for the Harvest Festival, kids also bring in food items for donation.
The Cayman Food Bank team was on hand to announce the winners of the challenge at the school’s assembly last week.
The food bank team also spoke to the children at an assembly about why the charity is so important and how they can show kindness and compassion in helping others.
The kids helped load the items for the trek to the Food Bank’s Industrial Park headquarters.
Watt said the food bank had to make three trips to the school to collect all the items.
Naomi Law of the Cayman Food Bank said it “was a wonderful sight to see”.
Student Ana Laing, 9, said when she saw the number of food items her classmates brought in for the charity, it made her proud and she was happy to help.
“It makes me happy because it makes me feel like I’m helping someone else and making them happy,” she said.
Watt said the rewarding part of the effort was seeing the children gain an understanding of what is happening around them in the community outside of the bubble of school and home.
“It also made them more aware of what the needs of the community are,” he said.
Gauntlet thrown
The effort to help the food bank has not ended, as Watt has put out a challenge to other schools in Cayman to get onboard.
“I dare you to try and beat our number. I would love to get more schools involved and more schools helping our community,” he said.
Law also encouraged other schools to follow suit and host food drives prior to summer “when our needs will again skyrocket”.
“This is primarily because of the students that would otherwise get meals at school no longer having that support, and the demand comes to us,” she added.
Related Videos
