A happier Christmas from St Paul’s

Peanut butter, pasta and peaches were cleared from the shelves by little hands last week in a bid to ease the pressure on families in need over Christmas.

As part of their outreach programme, six junior students from St Paul’s Catholic School  headed to Woolworths in Richmond on Friday armed with a list of food to help fill St. Vincent de Paul’s food parcels.

The junior school held a market earlier this term, raising more than $300 by selling hand-made goods which included travel bags of tic-tactoe using painted rocks and hand-crafted material bags.

First on the list was peanut butter, and it was a tough decision whether smooth or crunchy made it in to the trolley. In the end, a happy compromise was made with some crunchy making the cut, although smooth was the clear favourite.

St Paul’s director of religious studies, Kathryn Powick, says it was one part of a three-part drive of the outreach programme.

A silly shoe day gave studens the chance to bring a non-perishable pantry item in exchange for wearing silly footwear. High heels and shoes wrapped in Christmas paper were some of the more noteable silliness. A sausage sizzle on the same day raised more than $1000 which was then exchanged for grocery vouchers, all of which were donated to Richmond’s St. Vincent de Paul.

“Their pantry is empty at this time of year, they’d already had five calls for food on the day we took the pantry items there, they’re hanging out for our food delivery to fill parcels,” Kathryn says.

“There’s huge pressure this year, even people that haven’t experienced that pressure before,” she remarks.

And, thanks to the students, that pressure will be eased for many local whānau.