Seven-year-old Naevia Burrows is a child with the heart of a giant - the third-grade student has been saving her school lunch money for nearly a year, donating every month to the Bahamas Feeding Network (BFN) so other children won't go hungry.
She began wanting to help when she saw the line outside its headquarters on Fox Hill Road on a food distribution day.
"We were driving by on our way to school at St. Anne's when Naevia asked me, 'Mom, why are all those people standing in that long line?' I explained they were at the Bahamas Feeding Network waiting to get food," said Nakeisha Burrows.
"Do you mean they do not have food for dinner?" the child asked. Her mom said that's right.
"What can I do?" Naevia wanted to know. "If I save my money, I can give it to the people who need it. I don't want people to go hungry."
In a family, where giving back to community is a standard practice and a topic of nightly conversation, little did Naevia realize that her dad, Carrington Burrows, had been volunteering at the feeding network's distribution center during COVID.
When school reopened following the pandemic, the young girl, then in second grade, and with her mom's help, opted to bring lunch from home four days a week, putting aside the dollars she would have spent, and presented the savings, $60 a month, to BFN. She did allow herself the treat of pizza Fridays.
The money Naevia saved and donated was enough to help fill grocery bags and boxes to support two families. Now that she is in third grade, her parents agreed to add to the monthly donation to cover enough groceries for three families.
Next year, Burrows said, they will up it to four, matching each grade number with the number of families they will embrace through the non-government organization that has provided food for millions of meals since it opened its doors in 2013.
BFN distributes groceries and coupons through a network of nearly 100 churches and feeding centers in New Providence, Andros, Eleuthera and Abaco.
"I am grateful every day for the food on my table," said Naevia. "I say a prayer and blessing and I don't want other families to be hungry." To encourage classmates to give, she had a special t-shirt made asking others to join her.
"She's always been a giver from the heart," said Naevia's mom. "She's a very special little girl."
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