Packaging Centre aids families ahead of school term

Packaging Centre Ltd has distributed school supplies and snacks to children in need ahead of the new school term, calling on other businesses to join a wider effort to support Barbadian families.

At a brief handover ceremony, Packaging Centre warehouse manager Simon Cho said the company had run the initiative for several years but had previously kept it largely out of the public spotlight.

“We first started this back in 2022 with the Honourable Kirk Humphrey. We’ve been doing this for multiple years, but we never put it in the news,” Cho said.

Packaging Centre warehouse manager Simon Cho speaking to media, as Minister of Legal Affairs and Criminal Justice and MP for the City of Bridgetown, Michael Lashley looks on. (Photo credit: Shamar Blunt / Barbados TODAY)

He explained that the decision to highlight the initiative publicly was “so that we can get other companies to come together and start doing this on a bigger scale”.

Cho said the assistance focused on providing children with basic supplies they would need for the new school year – “bags, books, pens, basically the foundation that a lot of these students will need to complete school”.

He also stressed the importance of greater collaboration between private businesses and the government to address families’ needs.

“It’s important that [the] private [sector] and government work together because we can’t put all the pressure on government to do everything,” Cho said.

“It’s important that [the private sector] pick up and help as much as they can within our means, obviously, and do our part to make Barbados go to the next step, especially with the foundation of our children.”

City of Bridgetown MP Michael Lashley, the criminal justice minister, welcomed the initiative, describing Packaging Centre as a “good corporate citizen … with a view of assisting those who are in need and indeed assisting those needy children out there who need, of course, basic stuff to go back to school with”.

He suggested the programme could become part of a wider effort involving MPs and businesses to reach families across St Michael.

“I first got a call from the Packaging Centre in relation to this programme. I said, you know what, this would be a good relationship, where you have the MP for the City and other MPs throughout the urban corridor where there’s a need for this type of programme that I can partner with.”

Lashley said parents in the City and surrounding areas would welcome the initiative.

He also disclosed that his constituency office would soon launch its own back-to-school programme.

“I am pleased that other corporate companies are coming forward too. I must say that we also are about to launch our own back-to-school programme, I think on Monday in the City too.

“We welcome this because not only would it raise the volume, but it also creates the awareness to entice and to attract more businesses to come forward to engage in this positive activity.”

(SB)