Healthier meals for downtown kids

Bruce Golding, in West Kingston, and Ronald Thwaites, in Central Kingston, have used a portion of their Constituency Development Fund (CDF) to finance a programme to train early-childhood educators and parents in the preparation of nutritious, economical meals.

The programme included a series of interactive lectures and demonstrations to early-childhood educators and parents from schools within downtown Kingston.

Entrepreneurial potential

According to Little-White, the initiative emphasises the value of healthy meals for schoolchil-dren, demonstrating the entrepreneurial potential of school canteens and introducing creative ways to prepare meals using locally produced food.

"I conceptualised the programme to make good use of the CDF in the constituencies," said Little-White.

"Parents with limited resources often run short of food at the end of the month, or may not realise they could make better choices at the store or good use of the food they bring home," added Little-White.

She said the training was done in downtown communities because that allowed participants to pass the residual benefits of training to other community members.

The training was supported by the Urban Development Corporation, GraceKennedy, Jamaica Flour Mills and Jamaica Broilers.

The need for social intervention to impact on the lives of residents has long been highlighted as a key plank for any rebirth of downtown Kingston.

"We have to impact the lives of the people who live in the area. When you look at the condition in which some of the people live, it is clear that there is a need for social intervention," declared Custos of Kingston Steadman Fuller recently.

That echoed the views of several other stakeholders pushing for the rebirth of the heart of the capital city.