Preschool room child educator Wendy Patterson said under the guidance of preschool teacher Nicole Sullivan the preschool children spent two to three weeks gathering supplies for those in need and it was an initiative inspired by the children.

“In the preschool room we were talking about different types of houses and where people come from,” Miss Patterson said.

“One little girl [Hannah Chapman] said some people aren’t lucky, they don’t have a house.”

Although they only touched on the issue of homelessness so as to not scare the children it was enough to spur them on to want to help.

Miss Patterson said the items gathered by the children were given to one of the centre’s mothers, Lee Chapman who is also the founder of the Helpa Collective.

Mrs Chapman founded the collective last September and passed the donated food and nappies on to Housing Plus to distribute to homeless people in Orange.

“We try to have a focus item each month about what we are collecting but we always collect nappies and sanitary items to be given at homeless shelters and women’s refuges in the Central West,” Mrs Chapman said.

“We have one of the collection bins at the childcare centre and a lot of the families that go there are very generous with their donations.”

The items requested for May and June were new socks and underwear which can be donated at the Hill Street Children’s Centre, Baby Kingdom and the Community and Information Services Centre or via their Facebook page.