Parents of students at John Mills Infant, Primary and Junior High gave the JP St Mary’s breakfast programme the thumbs up recently, having seen the programme in action for themselves.

The school came alive on Tuesday, January 29, 2019 when 320 children lined up to be served their JP St Mary’s breakfast of banana-based products. Some opted for banana porridge, with others choosing boiled bananas with frankfurters and beans.

The initiative, Eat Well with JP St Mary’s, operates by taking over the breakfast programme at a particpating school for one day, using only green banana recipes.

It forms part of a wider school feeding project — JP St Mary’s Heritage Project — though which JP has undertaken to supply locally grown green bananas to public educational institutions at a cost of $5 per pound.

The parents at John Mills gave the drive full marks.

“I think it is a very important initiative,” said Mark Trout, president of the school’s parent-teacher association. “One of the keystones of education and learning is proper nutrition; and the children are not eating properly because eating is one thing and eating properly is another thing.”

Adding that an early morning meal is an important part of the day, Trout applauded JP St Mary’s for initiating the project.

“I congratulate JP St Mary’s for it,” he said. “It goes to show that once corporate Jamaica gets involved, we are going to see some better results. The future is going to be brighter for our children.”

Petrina Bryan, whose daughter Shuana-Kay McKay is in grade four, also lauded the programme.

“It helps a lot of children who get up early in the morning to come to school and don’t have anything to eat at the time,” she said. “It helps them a lot. [Through the programme] they can eat something before they go into class.”

Noting that her daughter is part of the breakfast programme, Bryan said it also helps her as a parent because sometimes “you don’t have any time to give them breakfast because time is catching up on you, so you have to rush out to reach to school early with them”.

“JP coming to the school, I love that,” she said.

The JP St Mary’s Heritage Project is being executed in recognition of the company’s 90th anniversary and is guided by the theme: ‘Gowing Goodness Together’. It is designed to supply 20 schools initially, with a plan to extend the offer to health care facilities and registered charities.