Students from a Seventh-day Adventist school in Solomon Islands have reached out to their local community by feeding the homeless.
The Grade 6 students from Kukum Seventh-day Adventist Primary School wanted to make a difference and follow the example of Jesus who showed compassion for the people of His time.
“We talked about what we could do in Honiara,” said Grade 6 teacher Keith Timothy, “and we decided to take food to the homeless and needy people on the streets of our city. Each of the 40 students were required to put together 10 takeaway plates each plus a bottle of water. The plates contained sandwiches and fruit such as bananas and cucumber.
“We met at our school on a Friday night and divided into four groups, each supported by a teacher and by parents. The students were amazed at the number of homeless and needy people on our streets. Within two hours we had handed out all our food, all 400 takeaway plates of food.”
The students talked to the people on the streets and prayed with them. Some asked the students to continue to pray for them and for their relatives.
“Our students are generally shy, but after a few minutes of sharing food they were excited,” said school principal Delwyn Patovaki. “They were excited because they had the opportunity to serve their community by feeding the homeless.”
Kukum Adventist Primary School is located in the eastern part of Honiara, in Guadalcanal, and has 536 students.
The school has recently launched a campaign, hoping to raise at least $100,000 to complete the construction of a new classroom block, and to buy chairs and desks, ready for the start of the 2020 year.
“We’ve received great support so far from the Solomon Islands Government, the Solomon Islands Mission of Seventh-day Adventists as well as parents, local Adventist churches and private donors,” Mrs Patovaki said.
The school has also recently held a healthy food promotion designed to help the students identify the difference between healthy and unhealthy food.
“We’ve banned oily, sugary and processed foods as these are the major contributors to our society’s poor diet. We encourage our children to bring fruit, fruit salad, eggs, corn and other health foods as these foods reduce the risk factors for non-communicable diseases,” Mrs Patovaki said.
The launch of the 10,000 Toes Campaign, a South Pacific Division initiative focusing on the prevention of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, emphasised to the school leaders the importance of a healthy diet.
