Community Member and Activist Provides Free Local Breakfast and Aid in Haiti

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by ohia design
on Wednesday, February 24, 2010

While poking around looking for Black History month events on my second favorite Asheville website, www.theurbannews.com, I came across this heartwarming article about a local do-gooder who has started a program providing free breakfast for children at Pisgah View Apartments. My heart went out immediately and I jumped on the phone to get a hold of Suncere. He answered and I blurted out that I was a graphic designer, knew how to build websites and how to cook. He was on the other line with an organization helping with his Haiti Disaster Relief project, with a fervor in his voice he promised to call me right back.

While waiting for the call back I imagined what the scenario would be. Would I be cooking every morning at 5:30 a.m. before school or running around getting food donations from local grocery stores and restaurants. I've worked with Food Not Bombs throughout the U.S., so I know the drill on asking for and gathering food donations. I'm familiar with the apartments as well because I get to go to Pisgah View every other Thursday to participate in a series of educational workshops for the 5th and 6th grade girls who are always full of energy and pretty enthusiastic to participate in "Girls Night" after a long day at school. These workshops are put together by Our VOICE, the local rape crisis center for Buncombe County, where I also volunteer as a member of their Prevention, Education, and Outreach program. As I waited for Suncere I thought about how I would love another opportunity to help the kids there in anyway. My phone rang.

Suncere introduced himself and I dove into the conversation spouting off all the ways I could help. He said that he needed a website for the Haiti program he was developing and that he needed volunteers for the breakfast program. Unfortunately I am spread too thin with the other volunteering, interning and actual work projects too cover all of his needs. I told him I could help with just one of the projects to which he replied "I can get you on board right away with the breakfast program." I agreed to meet him on Saturday and then I asked him to elaborate on the project in Haiti.

He said that he had adopted a number of children there and was calling for donations to get them proper shelter and care. He told me that he has made a long term agreement to take on the responsibilities of a father figure to about a dozen kids in Port-Au-Prince. He has vowed to advocate for their food, clothing, shelter, education, health care and any other need a child would have growing up. Pacific Domes tents has tentatively agreed to donate three tents to shelter the children until a more permanent structure is built. Suncere is calling upon his connections at Common Ground Relief to provide health care for the Hatian children. At the moment he is pulling a team of his own friends together who will converge with him on the 13th to devote about a months time in Haiti constructing a school and orphanage.

Sankofa Children's Free Breakfast Program

Shakur is the only person cooking at Pisgah View, so his absence creates an urgent need for volunteers to step up and help provide a nutritional meal to the children that he helps locally. To keep the program running while he is gone, he asks that folks email him at mec_freebreakfast@yahoo.com or call (828) 776-0062 to dedicate to a few weeks of support at least. He hopes that volunteers choose to commit long term, as this is just the first step of a bigger picture goal.

Making sure the kids get to eat while away from school is the main focus at this point. It fulfills a basic human need, but Shakur sees this as an opportunity to develop lasting relationships and he will eventually teach about what he is doing now in Haiti. He would like to plant the seed of goodwill by gradually passing along First Responder and basic survival program knowledge. This way when catastrophic events such as the recent earthquake happen, these children will be able to lend a much needed hand by traveling to destinations, calling for aid, or knowing how to write proposals for donations and how to approach sponsors on a local and national level. He would like to have enough people volunteering on Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. to be able to spend the time to teach, rather than just cook the meals.

Shakur is seeking a team of committed volunteers who will be able to help cook and pick up donations. Aside from needing helpers he says he has been using sub-par equipment and cannot cook quickly enough to keep up with demand. He doesn't drive, so even getting the donations to their destination can be quite a task. He has been relying on friends to help each Saturday, but hasn't secured a vehicle for the food. Besides proper transportation he is calling for further donations. A wish list can be found at the Sankofa Childrens Freebreakfast Program website www.sankofacfbp.org. Items on the list are simple staples, easily attained in households that are not touched by poverty. They include: bread, milk, eggs, and potatoes. Shakur has been receiving donations from restaurants in Asheville: Early Girl Eatery has provided eggs, Laurey's Catering and Deli gives bacon, Cats and Dawgs donates potatoes, Fiore's has given grits and orange juice. All of these are much appreciated but there will always be a need for more.

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