IF all goes according to plan, needy students at Seaforth High School in St Thomas, will no longer be fainting from hunger spells as they will soon be provided with a hot meal, courtesy of telecommunications company Digicel.

The company is now considering the funding of a proposal to establish a poultry-rearing project for the school within the next few months, to support a breakfast programme.

Dean of discipline of the school, Donna Williams, who had initially started collecting some items for a food basket to distribute to the students, said this is welcoming news for the institution.

Last October, the Jamaica Observer North East reported that a number of students were forced to walk miles to and from school without a single meal for the day.

School officials explained to the newspaper that although more than half of the 2,000-strong student population was on the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) the staff was still forced to identify innovative ways of providing a meal for the more than 900 students on the school’s welfare programme.

The officials said they were stretched to the limit to help the students as the need was so overwhelming. Following the article, Digicel representatives visited the school with a donation of groceries.

Williams explained that these items were distributed to 30 needy students, to take home to share with their families. She explained that on the day the Digicel representatives visited they asked how they could offer more sustainable help to the students.

The company, Williams said, requested that the school send them a proposal to see how they could best help. “We proposed the building of a chicken coop to rear chickens and to produce eggs and the principal worked out how much we would make to fund the breakfast programme,” Williams explained.

According to Williams, the proposal at first was to provide a hot beverage for the students, however, with an established poultry farm, she said, the school would be able to provide a full breakfast and will even be in a position to employ someone to prepare it.

“We would be able to feed the many needy students as we would sell the poultry and eggs to the school cafeteria and the students doing agricultural science would be able to help in that,” she said.

Williams said she is hoping to get the programme up and going in this school year. Senior Communications Manager at Digicel Shelly-Ann Harris told the Observer North East that the funds could not be allocated before April.

“The proposal, which was forwarded to the Digicel Foundation, is being given favourable consideration, however we will have to look at the next funding period, which is April, because the budget for this period is already out,” she said.

But Williams said the school is grateful to Digicel for the intervention as it has provided a light at the end of the tunnel.

“I remember the day when we were giving out the food that Digicel brought and how happy the students were and when some of them came back days later to say thank you and to tell how they tried to make the food stretch,” she said.

She further explained that the school was able to keep some of the non-perishable food to treat 30 of the neediest students to a finger-food party and also as an incentive to encourage good behaviour in one particular class.

“There is one class that we are trying to change their behaviour and so we promise them we will have a picnic-style thing with bun and cheese if there is improvement in their behaviour,” she explained.

“I am very pleased that we are able to offer this level of help to these students, and thanks also to the Observer for making all of this possible for Seaforth High,” she added.