Mount Saint Agnes students this week made a record donation to the Eliza Dolittle Foundation as a result of their inaugural Feed and Read initiative.

Throughout February, MSA students collected pledges from friends and family in the form of non-perishable items to go towards the Daily Bread Programme. At the end of the month, the students went back to their sponsors with a record of what they had read or, in the case of younger students, what has been read to them.

Teacher Karen Camara, who organised the initiative, said a total of 142 students took part in the event, with Middle School students alone reading 342 books.

“I was overwhelmed and delighted with the extremely generous response,” she said. “This was far beyond what I had initially hoped for.

“My dream is to have more schools on the Island jump on the bandwagon and join in to assist those in need with their own Read and Feed. Not only did the children collect non-perishables for the needy, they read an enormous amount of books.”

On Tuesday the Daily Bread truck visited the school to collect the donated goods. Even with the help of several students, it took almost an hour to load up all of the goods.

Executive director of the Eliza DoLittle Society, Margaret Ward, said the donation was the largest the charity has received from a school.

“This donation comes at a critical time as we’ve only been able to serve cookies and juice recently as our cupboards have dried up since Christmas,” Mrs Ward said.

“We feed about 400 to 500 people per month at our main feeding centre in Warwick. This food will allow us to feed the hungry for at least a month.

“It’s truly wonderful to see such a wonderful initiative that raises food for the hungry and encourages education.”