Our Year 11 Sociology class has made a valuable contribution to the community by raising over $1200 and receiving donations of 26 boxes of food, through their organisation of a mufti day and food drive.

The mufti day was the most successful one the school has ever had. On top of the $1,200 donated by students, local businesses such as New World, Annies and Dovedale donated food and money as well. Students contacted the businesses directly to ask for their help.

Money and food raised by the students will go towards helping families who have suffered hardship due to Covid-19 and the resulting lockdown. 

Shannen Banks, teacher of the Year 11 Sociology class who organised the mufti day, said the class was pleasantly surprised by the generosity of the Nayland community. “We didn’t expect that much food from the mufti day as well. Both the money and the amount of food we got was more than we expected.” 

The class are now working with our school counselors and deans to ensure the donations make it to families in need.

“I talked to my class and we think we are going to make up the food parcels and then we will give them to the deans so they can distribute them out. We just want to provide the parcels for people in need and then pass it along,” Shannen said. Any extra leftover donations will be passed onto the Nelson Foodbank and to Whanake Youth for further distribution.

Not only was the social action a success from a charitable perspective, it also provided valuable learning opportunities, as the entirety of the organization was left to the students.

“The sense of accomplishment for the students is huge,” Shannen explained. “The fact that they could actually approach businesses and get a response. I was taking myself as a teacher out of the equation, and letting them actually go and make this happen. They organized each other in the class to do the mufti day collections and make sure every single group had a job,” she said.

“My class has been so positive throughout the whole process – actually being able to accomplish something meaningful has been great for them.”

Shannen also said that the project had opened some of her students' eyes to the varied effects the Covid-19 crisis has had on our community.

“They learnt that there is a need in our community and that people are struggling to get by, especially after lockdown. I think they’ve actually realized that their family might be okay or their friend’s family might be okay but that doesn’t mean everyone in our community is okay,” she said.