Kingston, Jamaica. June 25, 2018 – In an effort to celebrate 78 years in Jamaica staff volunteers from fast moving consumer goods multinational – Nestlé Jamaica along with some community members converged on the grounds of the Seaview Gardens Primary School on Saturday, June 23, 2018 to refurbish their school canteen, courtyard and bathroom facilities. The project was an activity under Nestlé’s global commitment to support 50 million children to lead healthier lives by 2030 dubbed Nestlé for Healthier Kids.
“This project was intended to commemorate our 78th Anniversary of operations in Jamaica by creating shared value. For us, creating shared value is the basic way Nestlé does business. In order to create long-term value for shareholders, it is imperative that we create value for society – and seeing that charity should begin at home, we selected the first of our Nestlé For Healthier Kids’ schools in our immediate neighbourhood to add value to the most important space in the nutrition cycle; their kitchen”, Daniel Caron. Nestlé Jamaica Country Manager posited.
Works at Seaview focused predominantly on the kitchen facilities at the school and extended to the refreshing of the play spaces and the kitchen bathroom facilities. Additional works done on the project day included the installation of nutrition, health and wellness messages at strategic points within the school that are intended to serve as reminders to students of the importance of play, healthy lifestyle habits and general cleaning of the school compound.
Principal of Seaview Gardens Mrs. Sangia Briscoe was quite elated when she was told about the work that was to be done. “This gesture by Nestle will go a long way to helping us provide all the meals to our very deserving students on a day to day basis”. She continued, “The space just needs some TLC and while it has been a desire of ours to improve the facilities, the funding was a problem so we do appreciate the investment Nestlé is making here,” she ended.
In Jamaica, the Nestlé For Healthier Kids programme has impacted 13 schools across Jamaica and supported over 10 thousand students with nutrition education to help them build healthier habits. Nestlé will expand the programme over the next five years to include more rural area schools and students.