Students at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School are helping spread festive cheer and goodwill by collecting mountains of pantry staples to donate to local families in need.
The year 6 classrooms have been filled to the brim with basket upon basket of hampers the children have been filling ready to share.
They are taking part in the Adopt a Family Christmas Appeal with Beaudesert’s St Vincent de Paul branch, which currently operates out of St Mary’s parish.
The students collected so many non-perishable goods, their baskets were filled to overflowing and they had to buy more baskets to fit it all in.
To raise money for more baskets, they ran a fundraiser selling snow cones to their peers for $2 a pop.
As part of the social justice project, the year 6 students have been going around to St Mary’s classrooms each week to collect goods and share messages about the program.
They’ve run the program with a different theme each week throughout term 4, collecting non-perishable items in categories from breakfast cereals to treats.
Youth Ministry Captains Thomas Nairn and Talitha Boike said it was a good learning experience.
“We decided to do this to help families in need, who don’t have enough money to get food,” said Thomas.
“We know how lucky we are and how it can be, especially because of Covid, when people can’t get food to their houses.”
Coles Beaudesert are also donating sanitary items, shampoo and conditioner to contribute to the hampers.
The hampers will be distributed by St Vincent de Paul in the lead-up to Christmas.
