A group of kind-hearted school children, who saw the need in their community, managed to collect over 1600 tins of food in just one month.
The Elim Night Shelter in Elsies River received a huge donation from the group of prefects at Valhalla Primary on Tuesday.
Teacher Roxanne Josias says that the food drive was started to teach the children how to give back to their community.
“One of the core values that we try to instil in our children is the ‘we care’ value.
“We want them to grow up and be productive members of society, we want them to be in a position to uplift the communities that they come from,” the onnie explains.
She says the outreach project was successful because the entire Valhalla Primary family truly opened their hearts.
“After our first two weeks, we reached 1000 tins of food, this number surpassed our expectations by far.
“We were expecting to collect 500 tins but we ended up collecting a total of 1653 tinned foods, this included fish oil, spaghetti, spices etc.
“This led to us broadening our initiative, we visited Elim Night Shelter on Tuesday to deliver the donation. This was an amazing experience,” Josias says.
A social worker at the shelter, Anestacia Campher, tells the Daily Voice that the donation was a gift from God because their pantry was empty.
“It was as empty as the shelves were white, but them coming here and giving that donation was just amazing. They were like God-sent angels appearing here,” she says.
Anestacia says that the shelter can now continue to feed those at the facility for at least another month or two.
The group have also distributed food tins at an informal settlement close to the school.
Head girl Belle Kitombodi says visiting the shelter was an eye-opener.
“My experience at the shelter was mixed with emotions. Homeless people are not different from us and the small things you have can change someone's life,” she says.