Children conduct food fest to buy Christmas gifts for their ailing school mates

The children of Government Lower Primary School in Eloor, Kochi were on a noble mission when they all came together to sell foods prepared at their homes in a food fest conducted at the school premises.

From cakes to banana fritters, the lip-smacking food for sale at the festival on Wednesday were all prepared by their parents at homes to support the mission to raise fund for buying Christmas gifts for eight children of the school who are bed-ridden due to various ailments and couldn’t attend the regular classes.

The idea to buy Christmas gifts came up when the school authorities decided to visit the eight children and spend some time with them during the Christmas holidays.

“Though the eight children are enrolled in our school, they are not regular students. We decided to visit those children and present them with some Christmas gifts. Initially, we decided to collect a small amount from each parent for the same but we dropped it because we want the children to be involved in a charity programme and learn social values. So, we came up with the idea to conduct a food festival at the school and the parents agreed to extend their support,” said school principal Sibi Augustine.

He said each parent was requested to make a dish of their choice for the food festival. “While a few parents made cakes, some others made chicken and fish curries. Anyway, the festival turned out to be a huge success. We could sell the food at an affordable cost to the public and many people turned up for the festival to buy food,” Sibi said.

The school has a total of 146 children studying in first to fifth classes. “Majority of the children in the school are from lower income group families. But all the parents cooperated with us and provided dishes which they could afford to make. The event turned out to be an opportunity for children, parents and teachers to understand the value of compassion and team work,” the principal added.

The Eloor Municipality led by its chairman A D Sunil extended support to the food fest which was attended by writer Sriman Narayanan, municipality vice chairperson Leela Babu and education standing committee chairman P B Rajesh.