Souris Village Feast
Thousands of school children in Kenya now have two hot meals a day, thanks to the efforts of Chef Michael Smith and volunteers with the Souris Village Feast.
Read more in the Guardian about Michael Smith's visit in 2016 to Souris Regional School to talk about the Village Feast. The school is twinned with Kiirua Primary School through Farmers Helping Farmers.
In February 2016, Farmers Helping Farmers and the Village Feast celebrated the opening of a new cookhouse at Kiirua Primary School in Kenya. The school is twinned with Souris Regional School, and students exchange letters twice a year.
The cookhouses built with support from the Souris Village Feast allow schools in Kenya to offer two meals a day. The students are fed uji, or porridge in the morning. They also serve githeri, a maize and bean stew, for lunch. Attendance has improved at the schools with the cookhouses, as have the marks. Students used to have to go home for lunch, and some would not return for the afternoon because of the distance they have to walk. The cookhouses have made it possible for them to stay and helped them focus on their studies, with bellies full.
The Grade 3 students at Souris school have also donated money to their twinned school in Kenya. They raised the money by collecting recyclables. Chris MacAulay's Grade 11/12 Global Issues class has also fundraised for Farmers Helping Farmers.
As well as the official opening of the cookhouse, all of the students at Kiirua Primary received mosquito nets, through a 2016 fundraising campaign of Farmers Helping Farmers. The nets protect the children from malaria.
This year's Souris Village Feast will be held on Sunday July 3, 2016.
To find out more: www.villagefeast.ca or www.farmershelpingfarmers.ca
