St Columba’s College collect 1.4 tonnes of donations for local food-banks

During the Lenten term, St Columba’s College collected a total of 1.4 tonnes of food, from St Columba’s families and staff, to support local food banks. Two years ago, the school began to collect food during the Lenten period to donate to local food-banks. That year, students and staff donated seven hundred kilograms of food, and last year 1.2 tonnes were donated.

This project was entirely student led; organised, publicised and carried out by 12 Lower Sixth Form students. It began in late February when these students, along with students from Nicholas Breakspear School in St Albans, attended the launch of the Cardinal ‘s Lenten Appeal at the Borehamwood food-bank, with Cardinal Nichols. They visited the food bank and heard about the amazing work that the volunteers do to support the local community, and also how, more than ever, food banks need our support. In Borehamwood alone, there has been a 23% increase in the amount of food distributed since last year. According to one St Columba’s College student, Augustine McMahon, ‘Having attended this inspiring event, we knew the importance of what we were doing by collecting food; a simple act, but one that could give people dignity and most importantly, meeting a basic need’.

The food was collected over several weeks and involved the whole school; from Sixth Form students collecting and counting the food each morning, to the Senior School students labelling items and the Prep School students helping to stack the food on the display. The donations were split between three charities; the Borehamwood Food Bank, the St. Albans Food Bank and the Open Door homeless shelter in St Albans. According to Fr Dominic, Parish Priest of St Teresa’s and St John Fisher & Thomas More churches in Borehamwood, “The Borehamwood Foodbank relies on the generosity of many donors to give us food for the people who come for help to feed their families. Over the past few years, St. Columba’s College has taken up the challenge to collect food for us. Their collections have made a great impact on our stock of food’

This project was a very meaningful experience for all involved but more importantly, it is helping to meet a great need that exists in local communities.

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