MY NAME is Creig Kinch and I coordinate a breakfast programme. Unfortunately, I’m also an attorney.
Both “Creig” and “Kinch” are Irish names. I’m not Catholic, though! I have family who are Catholic and Anglican but I’m Methodist.
I’m from Christ Church. It’s definitely the best parish. I went to Foundation, at the top of Oistins Hill. I went to St Cyprian’s Primary. So I have an Irish name, Methodist upbringing and went to an Anglican school.
My father passed away my last year of law school. My mum’s still around. The core family was just me and a brother but my mother had 11 siblings, all Methodists. We have connections to almost every single Methodist church in Barbados.
I was very shy, as a child. The church got me up, reading lessons, taking an active role – that brought me out of my shell.
I don’t think anyone wakes up on any given morning and says, “I want to be a lawyer!” I applied to three different places to do three different things: to the UK to do environmental science; to do medicine at Mona; and law at Cave Hill.
I got in to all three but, by the time the medicine came in, I’d already registered at Cave Hill and thought I’d stick it out with the law.
I knew I didn’t want to go to the UK. Which might make people ask why I applied at all.
We have a football team I’m working with young people to develop; for exercise, yeah, but looking as an outreach programme to evangelise to people who are unchurched.
When you hit a certain age as a male – 16 to 24 – you don’t really want to be associated with church. And you try to bring out certain truths through football.
I’m trying to work out who to back in the World Cup. I like Brazil. I love Germany. Spain has a really good team. Italy is there.
I have a love-hate relationship with West Indies cricket. They have so much potential but lack the discipline to seek a win. If they put aside partying, all that stuff, and focused on their game, they could be successful.
Because of capitalism, our society has become obsessed with earning money. It’s the motivator now, instead of you ensuring you’re the best you can be. At the end of the day money isn’t everything. I know it’s generally rich people who say that but I’m far from rich.
No matter what you do, you have to work exceedingly hard to achieve greatness.
I listen to a lot of alternative rock. Coldplay is my favourite band now. I like Green Day, too. You don’t want anything that is going to downcry women, make them subservient, promote abuse of women or homosexuals. No Vybz Kartel, no Mavado.
If I do go to the beach, I go to Causarina Beach. I could walk to it but when you live close to the beach, you tend to take it for granted. So I go probably once, maybe twice for the year. It’s pretty much like, “Nearer to church”.
I kind of have this passion for social justice. I was looking for a way to work with my church and the community to find a project. Our church is small. The active membership is 35 to 37 on any given Sunday, so any project, we had to partner with someone else.
The YWCA feeding programme fitted in with our aim. They had the resources, we had the building and the people. So it was just to make that first contact with [YWCA president] Marilyn Rice-Bowen.
We made a presentation to the congregation. In our church, the congregation has to make the decision. They bought into it. We started in January 2009.
We start serving breakfast at around 7 o’clock and go up until school starts at 9 a.m. We like to have a cut-off point at around 8:45 a.m. If anyone comes after that, we still feed them, but we try to get them to school on time. If someone needs it, we can package breakfast and send it across.
The project is co-funded by the YWCA and the church. Every month they give us eggs, rations, other materials. The congregation funds the rest.
The menu varies. Fishcakes, bakes, eggs, tuna, luncheon meat, toast, what Barbadians term “cornmeal pap”, hot cereal, Milo, juice. They get a good, filling breakfast.
Before the programme, there were students coming to school who weren’t focusing. And it came out that, in the homes, breakfast wasn’t being served. A lot were rushing out to catch a bus.
We realised that, if we didn’t offer this programme, they probably wouldn’t have any breakfast at all.
We’re also teaching social skills: how to use a knife and fork; where to place your glass on the table. A lot of children didn’t use a knife before they came to us.
We serve roughly 140 breakfasts every school day during term time. It’s far from cheap. But, once our congregation sees the need, they’re willing to give. We are open to donations. We are in need of them.
The best thing about the job is seeing the smiles on the children’s faces. You talk about justice and fairness and how you want to make the world a better place and it sometimes doesn’t translate into your everyday living. Stuff like this, you actually see you’re making a difference, adding to society. That’s my reward.
The bad thing about the job is getting up early in the morning.
A Barbadian is any person who has a passion for Barbados. Who wants to see every individual who makes up the country progress, no matter who they are.
It goes back to looking out for your brother or sister: being their keeper. That should extend to the Guyanese. It’s the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Barbados is that mother who nursed me. There will always be that link and that love of the country, because of the sustenance I’ve gained from it.
* Read a longer version of this article at www.BCraw.com
