The Paragon School chose to support Bath based charity FoodCycle in 2021/22, which has a vision to make poverty, loneliness and food waste a thing of the past for every community. Volunteers provide delicious meals and conversation to those who would otherwise be without, and their mission resonated with pupils and teachers, particularly after a succession of lockdowns where we were isolated during periods of time from peers and loved ones.
Over the course of the year, pupils and parents collected food items and toiletries for the charity’s store cupboards and raised money for kitchen equipment and training for managers, chefs and volunteers. An initiative by the school’s art department saw each child crafting a beautifully decorated ceramic spoon which they sold to parents, raising over £900 alone, and they also launched a store-cupboard recipe competition for pupils which was judged by volunteers. The final sum raised was a fantastic £7,995!
Jessica Phillimore, their Fundraising and Corporate Partnerships Manager, said, “All of us at FoodCycle are delighted to have been supported by The Paragon. With the current cost-of-living crisis, we are seeing more people in the region turning to FoodCycle. In Bath, we’ve seen a jump in our numbers recently and we expect to hit 50 guests a week this winter, over double since the start of the year, so we’re really grateful for this funding to enable our volunteers to provide nutritious meals and vital social connection to the community.”
Rosie Allen, Head of The Paragon, added, “Connections with our community encourage outward-looking and globally aware children, invested in becoming change-makers of the future. Pupils at the school were so engaged with FoodCycle’s cause and we hope to build further on our connection with the charity.”
Find out more about FoodCycle at: www.foodcycle.org.uk and The Paragon School at www.paragonschool.co.uk