PUGWASH, N.S. – Residents of Cumberland County, and beyond, helped feed 40,000 meals to 180 school-kids at the Repairer of the Breeches school in Haiti last year.
With 20 more kids attending this year, 44,000 meals will be needed during the 2018-2019 school year.
“With 200 students, 20 staff members, and 200 days in the school year, we need to provide 4,000 more meals for the year,” said Joanne Cottrill, a cook at Pugwash District High School.
Cottrill has collected bottles and hosted fundraisers to provide lunch for kids at Repairer of the Breeches in Cazale, Haiti since returning from a trip to Haiti in 2010, following the earthquake that left much of the country in ruins.
She recently hosted a fundraiser at PDHS to provide an update on the school lunch program.
“It was through your refundable’s and monetary donations that together we raised $22,925 last year,” said Cottrill. “That $22,925 went towards feeding 180 students and their teachers, a total of 200 individuals, in the 2017-2018 school year.”
Repairer of the Breaches is a very popular school, in part, because of the lunch program. Each year they have to turn many students away but the school continues to grow, with 200 students attending this year.
Besides having more mouths to feed, Cottrill hopes to feed them more nutritious meals.
“I would really like to increase the amount of meat, beans, chicken, and fish, to give them more protein to help their energy level,” said Cottrill. “I would also like to provide Vita Mamba to the students every day throughout the year in addition to their meals because that ensures they’re getting their daily recommended vitamins and minerals and some added protein.”
Vita Mamba is a protein and vitamin supplement produced in Haiti from peanuts grown in Haiti.
It costs 80 cents per day to provide students with lunch and one Vita Mamba.
“It 54 cents for the meal, as of now, but will go up a little bit if I increase the protein, and 26 cents for a package of Vita Mamba,” said Cottrill. “For them it’s totally life changing.”
Cottrill’s daughter, Jenna Cottrill, spent the last six months in Haiti volunteering at Middle Ground, a malnutrition clinic and family sustainability centre in Haiti.
While in Haiti, she visited Repairer of the Breeches at least once a month. She talked about her experience at the fundraiser.
“Some students walk two hours to arrive at school, and to do so they have to wake up at 4 a.m.,” said Jenna. “When the students arrive at school they usually have not eaten.”
The kids receive lunch, and it might be the only meal they eat that day.
“When they go home, many of them will not eat again until the next day,” said Jenna.
Seeing the effects of hunger at the malnutrition clinic gave her a deep appreciation for the lunch program at Repairer of the Breaches.
“It’s good knowing families are able to send their children to a good school with teachers who love and care for them, where they have an actual chance at a future and are being fed every day,” said Jenna. “This is not the reality for most of the families I met working at Middle Ground. Repairer of the Breaches is a huge thing for the community, but is also is something I wish to be replicated across the whole country.”
Cottrill thanked the people in attendance for their donations, and also thanked Hunter Interiors in Amherst for recently donating money to buy a propane stove for Repairer of the Breaches.
“The cooks were able to stop cooking meals over and open fire because we were able to purchase a propane stove from the funds donated by Hunter Interiors,” said Cottrill. “Now they can do their job much quicker and they don’t have to purchase fire wood every day for the fire.”
She also encourages people to bring their bottles to local bottle depots.
“I have accounts set up at the depot in Pugwash, Oxford, Tatamagouche, Oxford, at the Bible Hill depot in Truro, and one in Moncton,” said Cottrill.
Repairer of the Breaches a registered charitable organization at MSC Canada.
Anyone interested in supporting the school can make a donation MSC Canada by going online to msccanada.org.
Click on 'projects’ and under ‘projects’ is ‘description.’ The sixth project on the description list is Repairer of the Breaches (Haiti). From there, follow the links to make a donation.
