Poverty Week, Students Get Cooking on Minimum Wage

To raise awareness and money during Poverty Week, 16-20 January, students: quizzed, baked, donated food and prepared meals on a minimum wage budget.

The Island School Social Justice (ISSJ) group organised a cooking competition, 20 January, where by Food Tech students were provided with food ingredients worth $35 (the hourly minimum wage) and challenged to make as appealing a meal as possible.

For the first time Form groups took part in the UN Freerice competition, where by students answered multiple choice questions on the Freerice website. Every correct answer equals a donation of 10 grains of rice to someone in need.

Island School as a whole raised over half a million grains of rice, totaling nearly 11kg. This is enough to adequately feed 28 people for one day.

A bake sale and dress casual donations raised over $4,000 for St James Settlement, who support a broad range of the community.

Head of ISSJ, Poverty, Ananya Gupta says: “I think that poverty week was definitely a success, we managed to spread awareness about the issues and fundraise for SJS at the same time. The week had many activities that were very different to any other charity week and got the whole school involved.”

There were some obstacles but overall, I think the group’s teamwork and commitment helped to make the project a success.”

Article by Van An Trinh (media team)