East Kalgoorlie PS students donate $250 in supplies to help vulnerable community members

Local primary school students have honed their culinary skills to help fundraise for community members feeling the sting of the cost-of-living crisis. Year 3 students from East Kalgoorlie Primary School delivered bags of fresh and non-perishable food along with health supplies to Foodbank Kalgoorlie on Thursday. The class raised $250 from the sale of food items and purchased food supplies for the hunger relief charity’s local branch. Year 2/3 teacher Sabrina Guilbert said the school was pleased to work with an organisation that supported families and the wider community to secure healthy food. “Foodbank came in and helped us in cooking classes which aligned to our health unit,” she said. “We then kept cooking weekly and sold these to our school community, posting on Facebook to promote our sales.” Ms Guilbert said the initiative followed lessons on the importance of volunteering and community groups. “As part of this study, we looked at community roles and how we can volunteer to support our neighbours,” she said. “We did some research into the many community groups of Kalgoorlie, and selected Foodbank as our focus.” During their visit on Thursday, branch manager Mellany Kennedy gave students a tour of Foodbank Kalgoorlie’s Forrest Street warehouse and explained how the food assistance organisation operated. Ms Kennedy said the local branch relied on community donations and was grateful for the school’s support. She said Foodbank Kalgoorlie had experienced increased demand in light of cost-of-living pressures. “On an average day we used to only (serve) 40 to 50 people, but now we’re getting much more than that every day,” Ms Kennedy said. With the local branch in dire need of extra volunteers, Ms Kennedy encouraged community members to drop in and lend a hand.