When Hurricane Gilbert destroyed the canteen at the Riverside All-Age School in Hanover in 1988, staff members were forced to institute a number of “stop-gap” measures in an effort to provide hot meals for students.

In the first instance, the cooks had to relocate to the home of a teacher, Delsie Gardener, where they prepared meals in cramped quarters. While grateful for Gardener’s help, the cooks were severely hampered by the lack of storage space which ruled out bulk buying.

If this was not bad enough, their workload also doubled, for, not only did they have to serve the lunches in boxes, but these then had to be transported to the serving area. And although Garderner’s home was located on the same premises, this was nonetheless tedious work for the two cooks and the other members of staff at Riverside All-Age.

But all that changed on December 5 when the JSIF came to the school’s rescue. The JSIF handed over a new, fully furnished and equipped, spacious canteen to the school to serve the needs of its student population.

Constructed and furnished at a cost of more than $1-million, the new canteen has a deep freeze, four-burner gas stove, ample shelf space and serving areas — more than enough to serve the needs of the more than 200 students who buy cooked lunch each day. Lunch is sold at a nominal cost, but students who cannot afford it are provided with free meals.

Meanwhile, the Parent/Teacher Association (PTA) which has played a strong hand throughout the entire project, has agreed to underwrite this cost through its fund raising efforts. Earlier on, the PTA exceeded the JSIF mandate by providing contributions in the form of a deep freeze, stove and fridge valued at $35,000, $15,000 and $35,000 respectively. The association also made a cash contribution of $34,000, raised through fund-raising efforts and this which was used to purchase other equipment.

The total value of the community contribution was therefore estimated at $119,000 or about eleven per cent (11%) of the total project cost of $1,068, 000. This is more than twice the five per cent minimum contribution JSIF requires of all beneficiaries.

Located in Kingsvale, a rural farming district about seven miles south of Lucea, Riverside All-Age has a student population of 365 between the ages of six to 15, with a teaching staff of 15, including two National Youth Service (NYS) members.