Jamaica Outreach
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Jamaica Outreach was established as a 501(c)3 in 2001 with a mission of improving the lives and promising a future for the children of St. Mary Parish in Jamaica. Our dream is to assure that all girls and boys leaving school at age 18 will be provided the career training of their choice, promising a personally productive future for them and hope for the land they love, Jamaica. Jamaica Outreach has worked in orphanages, community medical and dental clinics and currently in four primary schools in St. Mary Parish. We are currently providing free breakfasts for the children of Mason Hall Primary School and a supplemental lunch program funded through our BEADS FOR BREAKFASTS bracelet program. When asking the principals of area primary schools in Jamaica what the biggest need they faced in education, they said “nutrition.” “Without food in their bellies, the children cannot learn.” Jamaica Outreach is working hard to put food in those bellies.
How is your organization strengthening our community?
Each year Jamaica Outreach takes teams of workers to Jamaica and well over 100 people, young and old
alike, have traveled from Delta County to Jamaica to better the lives of St. Mary’s children. Through this
hands-on work in a third world country, eyes and hearts are opened to the power and fun of giving back.
Who better to understand the significance of this in our own community than the staff and volunteers of
Kids’ Pasta Project? Igniting the spark of “wanting to give back” offers a lifetime of opportunity to help in our own communities as well as global communities. This past November a team of 12 Paonia Rotarians traveled to St. Mary to plant “food factory” gardens to enable the children and their families to grow their own healthy food. In February, 14 high school students from Cedaredge and Delta are traveling to St. Mary to build a library onto the Mason Hall Primary School. We will also be harvesting the garden with the children and serving a meal to all their parents from the garden. Our goal is to have a garden in each of the children’s homes by the end of the year, with a hope for a “chicken” project the following year.
St. Mary Parish has an 85% unemployment rate and 80% illiteracy rate, so the basic necessities of life need to be met in a healthy way. Good nutrition will lead to literacy and eventually hope and opportunity in the land they love.
Jamaica Outreach is working hard to strengthen the community of St. Mary, and at the same time is strengthening our own community of the North Fork Valley and Delta County by creating a host of individuals with the desire to “give back.” Once the spark of “giving back” has been ignited,
all communities benefit.
In what ways does your organization work to empower individuals to serve their community?
Over the years of taking many teams to work in Jamaica, we have seen those team members return to their community with a new sense of purpose and self confidence which is turned into service for their own community. The same volunteers that have joined the work in Jamaica have also joined us in work at the North Fork Children’s Christmas Party, at Cocker Kids’ events, at scholarship fundraisers for North Fork high school students and a multitude of other causes. As I expect you see with your volunteers at the Kids’ Pasta Project, those same volunteers are the leaders in their school and their giving back does not stop at the Pasta Project. True service permeates the soul; once established it burns forever.
How does your organization serve to build bridges between different people and groups in the community?
Jamaica Outreach has built a multitude of bridges between various organizations and individuals in the
community. We have worked side-by-side with Altrusa and ASTRA Clubs of Delta and Cedaredge in taking students to work in Jamaica. We are currently working with our local Paonia Rotary Club as well as Rotary International to change the lives of a struggling people. Many members of a team that travel together barely know each other on departure; on the return you see those team members bonded and workingtogether for the good of their community. Jamaica Outreach presents their hopes and dreams consistently to North Fork and Delta County groups ranging from Rotary and Kiwanis to the Boys’ Reading Club at the Paonia Library to churches and service organizations. While we try to build bridges within our community, we are also building bridges in our global community. The children of Mason Hall Primary School learn to grow their own “food factory” gardens. Jamaica Outreach hopes to have one of these gardens in every student’s home. There are 108 children at Mason Hall, hungry for breakfast and hungry to learn. Principal Jean Bryan shows thank you cards the children have written.
An update:
This year Jamaica Outreach worked alongside the Rotary Club of Paonia and Rotary Club of St. Mary
Jamaica to complete a Nutritious Breakfast Program, create community gardens, establish a playground
and build and furnish a library. Here is what we accomplished:
• A Nutritious Breakfast Program and supplemental lunch program was continued at Mason Hall
Primary School. The program addressed 108 children and served 21,600 Nutritious Breakfasts
and supplemented 9,222 lunches over 40 weeks of school during the 2011 school year.
• As we fed undernourished children, we taught them how to grow their own nutritious food through
“food factory” gardens. Along with gardens at Mason Hall Primary School, we also planted
gardens at Hampstead Primary School, Jackson Primary School and Galina Primary School.
Once the gardens at the schools had successfully produced food for the students to eat, we
took the gardens home with the children, assisting the families in creating their own “food
factory” gardens. Our goal was to plant 124 thriving gardens; we completed the project with
130 healthy gardens.
• Another objective was to create a playground at Mason Hall Primary School. We
leveled the ground, re-planted grass and added playground equipment. The playground is
currently not only serving the school, but rather the community at large, with neighborhood
cricket games taking place on the field most afternoons.
• Lastly, a library was built at Mason Hall Primary School by a group of high school students from
Delta and Cedaredge High Schools through Jamaica Outreach. It was furnished with books and
other educational materials.
This coming May of 2012, Jamaica Outreach is hoping to take a group of Kids’ Pasta Project kids to
St. Mary Parish, Jamaica for a work and cultural exchange!
Jamaica Outreach was established as a 501(c)3 in 2001 with a mission of improving the lives and promising a future for the children of St. Mary Parish in Jamaica. Our dream is to assure that all girls and boys leaving school at age 18 will be provided the career training of their choice, promising a personally productive future for them and hope for the land they love, Jamaica. Jamaica Outreach has worked in orphanages, community medical and dental clinics and currently in four primary schools in St. Mary Parish. We are currently providing free breakfasts for the children of Mason Hall Primary School and a supplemental lunch program funded through our BEADS FOR BREAKFASTS bracelet program. When asking the principals of area primary schools in Jamaica what the biggest need they faced in education, they said “nutrition.” “Without food in their bellies, the children cannot learn.” Jamaica Outreach is working hard to put food in those bellies.
How is your organization strengthening our community?
Each year Jamaica Outreach takes teams of workers to Jamaica and well over 100 people, young and old
alike, have traveled from Delta County to Jamaica to better the lives of St. Mary’s children. Through this
hands-on work in a third world country, eyes and hearts are opened to the power and fun of giving back.
Who better to understand the significance of this in our own community than the staff and volunteers of
Kids’ Pasta Project? Igniting the spark of “wanting to give back” offers a lifetime of opportunity to help in our own communities as well as global communities. This past November a team of 12 Paonia Rotarians traveled to St. Mary to plant “food factory” gardens to enable the children and their families to grow their own healthy food. In February, 14 high school students from Cedaredge and Delta are traveling to St. Mary to build a library onto the Mason Hall Primary School. We will also be harvesting the garden with the children and serving a meal to all their parents from the garden. Our goal is to have a garden in each of the children’s homes by the end of the year, with a hope for a “chicken” project the following year.
St. Mary Parish has an 85% unemployment rate and 80% illiteracy rate, so the basic necessities of life need to be met in a healthy way. Good nutrition will lead to literacy and eventually hope and opportunity in the land they love.
Jamaica Outreach is working hard to strengthen the community of St. Mary, and at the same time is strengthening our own community of the North Fork Valley and Delta County by creating a host of individuals with the desire to “give back.” Once the spark of “giving back” has been ignited,
all communities benefit.
In what ways does your organization work to empower individuals to serve their community?
Over the years of taking many teams to work in Jamaica, we have seen those team members return to their community with a new sense of purpose and self confidence which is turned into service for their own community. The same volunteers that have joined the work in Jamaica have also joined us in work at the North Fork Children’s Christmas Party, at Cocker Kids’ events, at scholarship fundraisers for North Fork high school students and a multitude of other causes. As I expect you see with your volunteers at the Kids’ Pasta Project, those same volunteers are the leaders in their school and their giving back does not stop at the Pasta Project. True service permeates the soul; once established it burns forever.
How does your organization serve to build bridges between different people and groups in the community?
Jamaica Outreach has built a multitude of bridges between various organizations and individuals in the
community. We have worked side-by-side with Altrusa and ASTRA Clubs of Delta and Cedaredge in taking students to work in Jamaica. We are currently working with our local Paonia Rotary Club as well as Rotary International to change the lives of a struggling people. Many members of a team that travel together barely know each other on departure; on the return you see those team members bonded and workingtogether for the good of their community. Jamaica Outreach presents their hopes and dreams consistently to North Fork and Delta County groups ranging from Rotary and Kiwanis to the Boys’ Reading Club at the Paonia Library to churches and service organizations. While we try to build bridges within our community, we are also building bridges in our global community. The children of Mason Hall Primary School learn to grow their own “food factory” gardens. Jamaica Outreach hopes to have one of these gardens in every student’s home. There are 108 children at Mason Hall, hungry for breakfast and hungry to learn. Principal Jean Bryan shows thank you cards the children have written.
An update:
This year Jamaica Outreach worked alongside the Rotary Club of Paonia and Rotary Club of St. Mary
Jamaica to complete a Nutritious Breakfast Program, create community gardens, establish a playground
and build and furnish a library. Here is what we accomplished:
• A Nutritious Breakfast Program and supplemental lunch program was continued at Mason Hall
Primary School. The program addressed 108 children and served 21,600 Nutritious Breakfasts
and supplemented 9,222 lunches over 40 weeks of school during the 2011 school year.
• As we fed undernourished children, we taught them how to grow their own nutritious food through
“food factory” gardens. Along with gardens at Mason Hall Primary School, we also planted
gardens at Hampstead Primary School, Jackson Primary School and Galina Primary School.
Once the gardens at the schools had successfully produced food for the students to eat, we
took the gardens home with the children, assisting the families in creating their own “food
factory” gardens. Our goal was to plant 124 thriving gardens; we completed the project with
130 healthy gardens.
• Another objective was to create a playground at Mason Hall Primary School. We
leveled the ground, re-planted grass and added playground equipment. The playground is
currently not only serving the school, but rather the community at large, with neighborhood
cricket games taking place on the field most afternoons.
• Lastly, a library was built at Mason Hall Primary School by a group of high school students from
Delta and Cedaredge High Schools through Jamaica Outreach. It was furnished with books and
other educational materials.
This coming May of 2012, Jamaica Outreach is hoping to take a group of Kids’ Pasta Project kids to
St. Mary Parish, Jamaica for a work and cultural exchange!
