Students join Jessica to feed poor
THANKS to the amazing moral compass of Sunshine Coast around-the-world sailor Jessica Watson and the commitment of the Noosaville State School students, about 8000 hungry mouths will be fed.
Jessica - who can handle gale-force winds in her stride - was blown away on Wednesday by the Noosa response to her Kids Fighting Hunger campaign, which launched last month as part of her World Food Program activities.
School spokeswoman Margit Cruice said Jessica was not expecting to see every class involved in a range of activities nor their generous contri- butions, which netted $1973.
WFP's school meals program provides nutritious meals daily to a total of more than 22 million school children in 60 countries at a cost of about 25 cents a child per day.
"As Youth Representative for WFP, I wanted to be involved with programs that directly improve the lives of children, and WFP's school meals program does just that - it keeps more children in school for longer," Jessica said previously at a launch of the Kids Fighting Hunger initiative.
All funds will support WFP's school meals program in Laos under Global Development Group project J753N.
"When I visited Laos with WFP last year, I witnessed the amazing impact that WFP school meals have on the lives of school children, their families and communities," she added.
Jessica said the campaign taught Australian school children "the value of education and nutrition" and empowered them "to help fellow school children in developing countries".
Beginning last month, the fundraising campaign runs until next month and the eight schools with the top totals will get what Noosaville has already received - a visit from Jessica.
"We got in early for a visit," principal Rob Van den Heuvel said.
He added it was inspirational for the students to talk to someone from the Sunshine Coast who had achieved their dreams and shown it was possible to aspire to the highest endeavours and succeed.
