As Christmas approaches the end of the 2017 year, the majority of us can enjoy the festive season and look forward to spending valuable and cherished time with our loved ones over the summer break. For many people however, the festive season can be a time of stress and hardship and even more so for those living in severe poverty. In Christchurch, we are extremely lucky to have the City Mission to help our most vulnerable people as they provide food, warmth and shelter to them. The time of Christmas and the summer holiday season can be even harder for the city mission as they heavily rely on the good will of people for donations of money and food. At St Thomas our key cornerstone values around compassion and empathy have taught our boys to be aware of people that are living below the line and struggle in hardship. These key values are what makes an STC man.

Teacher, Andrew Jones, put it to the students at St Thomas to run a food parcel in the office this week, where they can drop off any perishable item of food to be donated to the city mission to help with the ongoing demand over the Christmas period. As of today, we have 3 huge boxes of kai to donate to the city mission and give our most vulnerable people something less to stress about over the festive season. Huge thanks goes to Andrew Jones for initiating this charitable project, and to Mr Stephen Kennedy for organising the Marlow coins day in Term 2, which donated around $70 worth of food to the parcels.

Pictured is kind donator Dean Smith.