
Cottingley Primary Academy turned one Christmas tradition on its head this year by organising a reverse advent calendar.
Throughout December the school asked children and staff across school to bring in an item each day to donate to the foodbank if they were able to, rather than receiving something. And yesterday (21 December 2023) they handed over 210kg of food to Leeds South & East Foodbank, equating to about 500 meals for local people.
Foodbank volunteer Charlie Wood said he’d never seen such a big collection from a school as the tins and packets completely filled the van.
The handover was overseen by Rafael, Hollie, Ephrata and Simon from the ‘Calliope’s Committee’ (school council). Rafael said it was better than a normal advent calendar because:
“We get to help people who don’t have anything and it feels good to help people out.”
Ephrata added:
“I enjoyed it because instead of us receiving anything we gave it to people who don’t have anything at Christmas.”
Hannah Mills, the teacher who organised the collection commented:
“We are incredibly proud of the enormous effort the children and staff have made to add to our Advent Calendar throughout December. We are blown away by their generosity!”
Wendy Doyle, Operations Manager at Leeds South and East Foodbank said
“I would like to thank the school and all the families who donated, the amount donated will make over 500 meals and help some very needy people in our community. We wish all the families and the school a merry Christmas and a happy new year.”
Main Photo (L-R): Charlie Wood, Rafael, Hollie, Ephrata, Simon and John Sutcliffe
All photos by Jeremy Morton
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