The first round of the ISSA Schoolboy Football Competition may be complete, but the excitement is far from over.

This after KFC Jamaica, through their sponsorship of the 2018 schoolboy football season, announced that it will be donating $1.2 million to the company’s Add Hope initiative, which provides meals for needy children at the basic and primary school levels in Jamaica.

KFC had earlier this season announced that it would be donating $500 for every goal scored during the first round of the schoolboy football season, to complement their Add Hope programme. With nearly 2,400 goals scored in the first round, this allowed KFC to top the one-million mark with this contribution.

The donation was recognised at an event held at one of the Add Hope beneficiary schools, Sandhurst Basic School, in Kingston on October 16 — a day observed for the promotion of worldwide awareness and action for those who suffer from hunger, known globally as World Food Day.

Earlier this year, Restaurants of Jamaica, owners and operators of KFC, kicked off their Add Hope programme in Jamaica with a $4.5-million donation to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information’s national school feeding programme. This saw Nutrition Products Limited, the Government agency responsible for executing the government’s school feeding programme, distributing just over 82,000 meals to basic and primary level students.

“It’s been a great month for our Add Hope programme — our schoolboy footballers really put out a big effort and scored a phenomenal number of goals,” said Andrei Roper, brand manager for Restaurants of Jamaica.

“We are really proud of the teams as they not only performed superbly for their schools, but they made a tremendous contribution to a very important cause. Because of their efforts, thousands of meals will now be made available to the children who are most in need.”

Restaurants of Jamaica plan to launch phase two of their Add Hope initiative, through brand KFC, allowing customers to make donations in-store when purchasing meals. This will see KFC customers being able to top up their in-store purchase with as little as $10, with these proceeds going directly towards the Add Hope programme. Restaurants of Jamaica will then match the total funds raised from customers, making a joint donation to the ministry and Nutrition Products Limited.

“We are excited about the Add Hope initiative and how it will benefit the nutrition of our basic and primary schools,” said DrWalton Small, ISSA president. “We are happy to have made our contribution by scoring goals during the first round of the schoolboy football season. This year, the number of goals scored so far is greater than any of the previous years, so maybe our footballers wanted to make their mark by scoring as many goals as possible.”