KINGSTON, Jamaica — What began as a company-wide volunteer drive turned 2026 Labour Day into a transformative day of community service for Restaurants of Jamaica (ROJ), the parent operator of iconic fast-food chains KFC and Pizza Hut across the island. The company coordinated hundreds of team members, building supplies, and catered meal support to upgrade eight primary and early childhood institutions across western Jamaica and St Catherine, delivering tangible improvements to learning spaces that serve local communities.
In an official press statement released Thursday, ROJ outlined that the initiative was intentionally structured around community needs already identified by its own employees. Rather than launching a disconnected corporate charity project, the company organized cross-location and cross-department teams to support schools located in the very neighborhoods where their team members live and work, grounding the effort in local connection.
The eight institutions that benefited from the drive span the region: Cornwall College, Howard Cooke Primary, Edward Basic, Granville Primary and Infant, Bridgeport Basic, Priory Primary, St Peter’s Early Childhood Institution, and Bogue Hill Primary and Infant School. ROJ covered all required material costs for the projects, donating multiple buckets of paint, along with brushes, rollers, paint pans, and native saplings for campus landscaping. To keep volunteer teams energized through the full workday, the company also provided hot meals from KFC and Pizza Hut, plus cold refreshments for every work site.
Across all participating schools, the core goal of the effort was simple but impactful: to create brighter, cleaner, more welcoming learning environments for both students and teaching staff. ROJ highlighted two sites in particular for their focused, community-integrated work: St Peter’s Early Childhood Institution in Falmouth and Bogue Hill Primary and Infant School in Montego Bay.
At both locations, ROJ volunteer teams worked side-by-side with school administrators, parent groups, teachers, and local community volunteers. Campus walls were repainted in fresh, vibrant hues, faded playground artwork was restored, new trees were planted across school grounds, and deep cleaning work was completed throughout every building. Even young students found small ways to contribute to the upgrades, joining in the collaborative spirit of the day.
For St Peter’s in Falmouth, the support went beyond cosmetic upgrades: ROJ’s team also completed critical repairs to the roof of a classroom that had sustained severe damage during Hurricane Melissa the previous season.
Michael Black, Restaurant General Manager of Pizza Hut Whitter Village and lead coordinator for the St Peter’s project, said the day perfectly embodied what ROJ’s Labour Day service model was designed to achieve. “This was all about meeting a demonstrated need in the community and bringing the right resources to get the job done,” Black explained. “St Peter’s is a core institution for this area, and after the damage Hurricane Melissa left behind, we knew this work would change daily life for the kids here. What impressed me most was how seamlessly team members from different restaurants and departments came together to pitch in. Everyone understood why we were there, and that made all the difference.”
Levene Sheriff, Marketing Officer at ROJ, added that the initiative allowed the company to support local community action in a way that felt authentic rather than performative, leaning into the existing connections ROJ employees already have with their home neighborhoods. “Across both of our brands, our team members are embedded in communities all over Jamaica, and many of them already volunteer for local causes on their own time,” Sheriff noted. “Labour Day gave us the chance to back that existing spirit of service with company resources — whether that’s building materials, catered meals, or extra volunteer hands. Our goal wasn’t to launch something new from the top down; it was to strengthen the work that was already happening in these school communities.”
For Gillian Brissett, Principal of St Peter’s Early Childhood Institution, the volunteer drive came as a much-needed boost after months of uncertainty following the hurricane. “We are truly grateful for every bit of support the ROJ team gave St Peter’s,” Brissett said. “They showed up ready to work from the minute they arrived, and it was so encouraging to see parents, teachers, and even our own students join in. The school looks completely different now, brighter than ever, and after everything we went through with Hurricane Melissa, this means more than we can say. Support like this reminds us that the wider community hasn’t forgotten us, and that we all have a stake in these kids’ education.”
By the end of the 2026 Labour Day, the effort had brought together more than 200 participants from ROJ, local schools, and the surrounding community, all united around the shared goal of building better learning spaces for Jamaica’s children. By leveraging its existing employee network to target local needs, ROJ was able to deliver impactful upgrades to multiple schools while keeping the work rooted in personal connection, practical action, and community-focused service.