The sixth staging of The Jamaica Observer’s Applaud It! kicked off in fine style inside the company’s executive boardroom. The afternoon’s hosts Managing Director Julian Rogers, event conceptualiser and Lifestyle & Social Content Editor Novia McDonald-Whyte; Natalie Chin, head of advertising, marketing and communications; and Financial Controller Donnalee Findlay broke bread with 15 students of the Half-Way-Tree Primary School and their headmistress Carol O’Connor.

Eloquent, witty and socially aware were but a few adjectives used to describe the cabal of students. They expressed balanced opinions on the importance of punctuality even as they contemplated the negative ramifications of students locked out at school gates. There was a united appeal for violence to end, reckless driving to cease and littering to stop. Indeed, Half-Way-Tree Primary School Head Girl Mikayla Carter was adamant that a change of behaviour was the only way forward. “We need to deal with the behaviour first, then we can move on to the other things and chart our course to become a first world country,” she said. For her peer Gareth Knight, Government needed to move with alacrity and arrest taximen when they behaved recklessly on the nation’s roadways.

Lusty applause was elicited from members of the Jamaica Observer team when student Dominique Rodway, in response to a question about reading the newspaper, urged her peers to “stop being lazy and read”. Rodway added that reading was the only way to build vocabulary.

“There’s no doubt in my mind,” noted Rogers in his remarks, “that our future is in competent hands!” There’d be no disputing that! Applaud It! is a Jamaica Observer initiative that teams the country’s business leaders with the next generation during a formidable dining experience intended to hone the students’ social skills.

Thursday Food takes you around the mahogany dining table of the luncheon catered by Jamaica Observer Table Talk Food Awards Outstanding Caterer of the Year recipient 2018/19 Christina Simonitsch.