No one expected this small school of 320 students to raise $15,000 for Yarraville’s Foodbank, but St Leo the Great Primary School in Altona North has done just that and in a short six weeks.
“As part of our social justice initiative, which we do to support our local community, we have joined up with Foodbank,” said religious education leader Christine Kutniewski.
“This is a great cause because the money we have raised will go towards feeding lots of Victorians.”
With an initial goal of $7000, Ms Kutniewski, the school and Foodbank have all been left gobsmacked with the end result.
To celebrate, the school and Foodbank hosted a Food Fight Fun Run Day on Thursday, March 28, which Ms Kutniewski described as the “messiest food fight ever”.
“Foodbank organised a website for us to donate to, we put that in our newsletter along with little incentives which helped the students raise money,” she said.
“However our goal was not at all anywhere near $15,000, we thought $1,000 per year level would be nice.
“So Foodbank came out to help us organise with the food fight.“
Foodbank chief communications officer Matt Tilley said the Foodbank team thinks the school’s effort is amazing.
“We haven’t really been pushing people on the fundraising and it seems we haven’t needed to,” he said.
“It shows how strong the community can be when they come together, it is lovely they want to lean in and give a bit back.
“We loved letting the kids do some naughty things. The food fight has been the real appeal of it which led to a wonderful result.”
Jennifer Pittorino
