Life skills on the menu at Our Lady of Lourdes breakfast program

Students from JK to Grade 8 at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School are benefiting from the good citizenship and hard work ethic of two St. Mary’s College students.

The breakfast program at the school runs from Monday to Friday with SMC students Blair Driscoll and Sara Sangestino packing and delivering snacks to Lourdes students Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday every week since the fall of 2022.

Driscoll and Sangestino, both 19, are enrolled in SMC’s  Independent Living Skills class and are learning life skills to prepare them for employment after graduation.

The two students each have an early start to their day.

They report to SMC in the morning, then — accompanied by Patsy Reid, Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board ILS educational assistant — travel by cab to Our Lady of Lourdes, located on Prentice Avenue, west of Korah Road.

They load bins with healthy food items such as fruit, vegetables and granola bars in the Lourdes kitchen before trollying them to students in each classroom and, at approximately 10 a.m., return to their ILS classes at SMC.

“We put on our aprons and then we start to fill the bins. I like seeing the kids get excited about the snacks. It makes me feel good,” Sangestino told SooToday.

For Driscoll, who attended Lourdes in his elementary school days, his thrice-weekly breakfast program duties are a homecoming.

“I like feeding the kids, the big kids and the little kids,”  Driscoll said, adding he would like to work in a restaurant some day. 

“Blair was very excited to come back to his roots and do some service for our students,” said Franca Spadafora, the principal at Our Lady of Lourdes.

“The breakfast program is a fantastic program to have, and it’s good to have Blair and Sara come into the school and run our program for us. They’ve done a wonderful job and the students have grown to love them as well. They’re familiar faces within our building.”

“They are very committed. Since we started this program with them they have not missed a day. They're fantastic, wonderful young adults that we love having here. They’re very friendly and hard-working. They’re an absolute asset to the school,” Spadafora said.

Reid has known Driscoll for five years, Sangestino for six.

“They’re fabulous,” she said. 

“They’ve taken this on and I haven’t had to teach them very much. Anything I’ve taught them they’ve run with and Lourdes has welcomed with open arms.”

The breakfast program snacks are appreciated, the bins almost empty by the end of a typical school day.

Reid said she would like to see more placements for ILS students going forward.

Students in the program helped out and learned life skills at places such as nursing homes and daycare centres before COVID brought its activities to a screeching halt.

“Blair has been talking about Lourdes since he came to St. Mary’s. He’s always wanted to come back to Lourdes. Administration found a way for him to get back here and Sara was more than willing to come and be a part of this program too. Both of them are fantastic. It turned out great and I think Blair would do well again next year here,” Reid said.