HAMMERSMITH, Trelawny — When the 2017/2018 academic year begins next week, the more than 180 students and teachers at Hammersmith Preparatory in Trelawny will have their meals prepared in a new state-of-the-art kitchen which was donated and handed over to the school by Sandals Foundation last week.

The kitchen, which meets all the requirements of the Ministry of Education (MOE) and Early Childhood Commission, will allow the school’s population to enjoy a healthy breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack, along with hot beverages, fruit juices and water daily.

Founded in September 2012, Hammersmith Preparatory currently operates under an MAS programme, which offers a unique approach to curriculum delivery through its rich resource project-based activities.

The MAS website explains that the programme was developed in North America by a team of business executives and academic professionals led by Michel Shah. It is woven together by proven principles from top international learning models and strategies including the Finland curriculum, UK National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies, Montessori, Ontario and Jamaican curricula.

Hammersmith does not operate a tuck shop, and children are not allowed to bring food or drinks to school, neither are vendors permitted on the school grounds.

Their school-feeding programme also includes items grown on the property by the farming club, and ensures environmentally-friendly practices. Etiquette at the table is not left out, as all teachers and other members of staff share meals with the students daily, spending quality time to teach and enforce best table manners.

At last Tuesday’s official opening of the kitchen, Shah, the principal and founder of the school, lauded Sandals Foundation for coming on-board to assist the institution.

Earlier, she stated that, “Our ability to continue providing healthy meals for our students in a world-class facility positions us to be better able to provide a healthy environment which equates to effective preventative health care.”

“This was all possible through the effective partnership with the private sector such as the Sandals Foundation,” she stressed.

Several students also thanked the foundation for assisting their school.

“We MAS kids are tremendously grateful to Sandals Foundation for your generous gift to us, your support of our programme, our learning and holistic development,” said nine-year-old Ayesha Cooke.

“We greatly value our clean environment and our healthy meals which are all linked together to ensure ease of learning. It’s great knowing that every day our meals are provided for and we don’t have to worry about whether we have cash or not. All of us are fed three times a day every day as long as we show up, which ensures ease of learning. This means a lot to us and our teachers and parents,” she said.

Another student, 10-year-old Marisa McCormack, said the decision by Sandals Foundation to assist the school “demonstrates that you have a growth mindset because you have left the busy highways and cities with many schools which we are sure to call upon you”.

“Yet you chose to reach out and touch us, way off the trodden path, understanding that Jamaica’s gems reside in disparate places,” she said.

“While we are here waiting on our next meal, we are happy to explore, learn and play. Our teachers equally enjoy our meal programme. They eat with us and ensure we use our knives and forks and follow proper hygiene and etiquette,” McCormack added.

Parents attending the official opening ceremony also praised Sandals Foundation for providing the well-needed kitchen.

Among them was Recardo Vaughn, who stressed that the facility will provide students with a balanced diet.

He also assured the foundation that the school will do its utmost best to take good care of the facility.

“There are many other schools that you could have invested in, but I want to assure you that our school is a good place to invest,” added Vaughn, who is also a member of the school’s planning committee.

Heidi Clarke, the director of the Sandals Foundation, in her remarks stressed the importance of partnerships within the education system.

“We are really happy to provide the much-needed upgrades to the kitchen here at the Hammersmith Prep School. Recognising the passion of the entire school family here to work together to create this well-rounded centre of excellence, we could not help but offer our assistance to make sure their kitchen met MOE standards, and continued to provide the students with healthy meals, in turn forming healthy lifelong habits,” she said.

The donation forms part of Sandals Foundation’s long-standing focus on education in Jamaica and across the Caribbean islands where Sandals operates resort hotels, through school upgrades, enrichment programmes, teacher training, back-to-school supply distribution, as well as secondary and tertiary scholarship opportunities.

To date, more than 300 schools and 129,000 students in the region have been impacted by initiatives supported by Sandals Foundation.