Scotiabank Group Jamaica | Wealth | Business | Everyday Banking | Community | Youth

Grade 6 students Rashade and Sapphire are not the typical 12 year olds living in an inner city community. They are brilliant straight ‘A’ students with exemplary behavior destined for a big break in life! This says, Cecile Palmer, their principal at Holy Family Primary, an inner-city school located in Central Kingston where despite the harsh economic circumstances parents, students come to school daily, are fed a balanced meal and perform exceptionally well. At least, all the students in the Scotiabank sponsored breakfast feeding programme!

The Scotiabank Jamaica Foundation introduced the breakfast feeding programme in 2003 recognizing that many poor families across inner-city and rural areas are unable to afford proper breakfast for children and are effectively putting their children’s education and future at risk.

“The link between good nutrition and learning is undeniable. Research has shown that children who regularly ate breakfast had better test scores, better behavior, and were less hyperactive than children who skipped breakfast. We know that many parents in these neighbourhoods are unable to give their children a balanced breakfast before they are go off to school and that’s where we step in with our support. The Foundation funds the provision of a balanced breakfast which includes items from every major food group” explains Debbie Clue, Manager for Corporate Social Responsibility at Scotiabank.

Getting this first cooked meal for the day has proven to be crucial for the over 600 students in five (5) primary schools from rural and inner-city communities who are enrolled in the programme and has made a significant difference in their academic and physical performance. “In fact, for many students enrolled in the programme this is the only sure cooked meal they have for the day as their parents can’t provide lunch monies to purchase a meal during the day nor can they bank on having a cooked meal after school,” says Ms. Palmer. “The situation that our students face is really discouraging and distressing to us at teachers. It severely limits the children’s performance in school. The students appear lethargic, unfocused, disruptive and generally distracted in class when they are hungry. We can see a remarkable difference in their academic performance when these needy students get enrolled in the breakfast feeding programme and are able to get a square meal in the morning” added the principal, who has been at the school for over 20 years.

Principals and teachers whose pupils are in the programme are reporting that many students move up by at least three grades in a term after being in the programme. “Holy Family has a grade1 learning profile test which we administer to incoming students. Many of them average at about 40-45% on their first sitting. We discovered that it was linked to the fact that they came to school hungry, lacking energy and could not pay much attention in classes. They even begin to ‘act out’ at times. After incorporating them in the breakfast feeding programme for at 6-8 months, we see these same students moving up to grades 80% and exhibiting much improved behavioural practices “explains Ms. Palmer.

Scotiabank now annually invests $2 million in school breakfast feeding programme for the students from the five schools that are now in the programme. Since 2003, the Bank has made a significant investment in the programme with the aim of improving nutrition levels and academic performance of the children who are enrolled in the programme.

Over the next two years the Bank will be making some short term improvements to further assess the nutritional impact of the programme through research and determine how to enhance it to make it even more effective. “Because Scotiabank support of the breakfast feeding programme is heavily based on the link between nutrition and academics, we want to ensure that the content of each meal delivers the right amount of vitamins and minerals needed. As such, we will be undertaking an initiative to further test the exact levels of specific minerals in the students and determine how we can enhance the programme even more to ensure the students perform at the optimal level” said Ms. Clue. She also announced that the programme will be expanded to another 5 schools over the two year period to give even more children a better start to their day in school.