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Presentation Associates in Kissimmee Help Homeless Children

The Presentation Brothers and Associates in Kissimmee in Florida are continuing the work of Blessed Edmund Rice with a new project. They have discovered that their community has some 1,100 homeless children in the school system. These children live in small motel rooms with their families. The family size is usually 4 to 10 people in a room. These children receive free breakfast and lunch in the schools, but when they leave school on Friday afternoon they usually do not eat a substantial meal again until Monday morning when they return to school.

The Presentation Associates have decided to address the situation. Sharon Sikorski, chairperson of the group, suggested that the Associates raise funds to supply food to these children to take home for the weekends. The original plan was to begin the project in January due to the busy holiday season, but a fellow Associate, Dr. Josephine Tan, suggested that it begin before Christmas.

Dr Tan spoke to her colleagues and prayer group and was able to raise money to purchase food for two schools so at least some students would be able to be fed for their two week Christmas school vacation.

In January, the Associates will speak at Holy Redeemer Church during Mass to ask the congregation to donate at least $1 on leaving the church. The goal is to raise a few thousand dollars to feed more children. The vision is that the children will be provided with a backpack of food each Friday to carry them through the weekend. Using a back pack prevents the children from being singled out as homeless.

The Associates are praying that they can involve other local churches in their community to assists and obtain sponsorship for the schools where the number of homeless children is relatively small.

We wish the Presentation Associates in Kissimmee every success with this worthwhile project!

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Photo 1: (left to right) Br James Needham, Presentation Associate Sharon Sikorski, Br Francis Schafer.

Photo 2: Br James and Dr Josephine Tan with staff at Central Elementary School.