For the first time students from Canobolas Rural Technology High School have joined a fundraising initiative run by Orange High School to help people in need.
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Orange High School started the Orange Secondary Schools Challenge Charity Awareness was established in 2020 as a way for students to give back to the community and this year's fundraising will go towards The Uniting Church Hot Meals Outreach program.
Reverend Cunningham said the hot meals initiative started in 2020 during the COVID pandemic and the number of people using the service is constantly increasing and the money raised by the schools will provide at least 10 weeks worth of meals.
"It costs up to about $550 a week for the meals that we prepare," Mr Cunningham said.
"That's to provide an average of about $150 meals on a Saturday."
Mr Cunningham said the budget for the hot meals is between $18,000 to $25,000 a year with much of that money coming from one-off donations and from Cadia.
"It started in May 2020, as all the lockdowns happened in the first year of COVID, a lot of the organisations in town that provide meals to vulnerable people had to close because often they provided meals in an indoor setting and so some people in our church said the weather is OK so lets serve some hot meals from the door," he said.
It costs up to about $550 a week for the meals that we prepare.
- Orange Uniting Church's Reverend Andrew Cunningham
"There was 20 or so people the first week and very quickly it got up to over 100 each week and it's still happening.
"A really nice thing is some people who have come to receive meals then sometimes when they are in a bit better position come back and help and give something in return as well."
Orange High School teacher Melanie Hope was overseeing the project and said it was established by the school's prefects as a legacy.
"The aim of it is just to bring the schools together for separate fundraising efforts and collate the money together and give to a nominated charity," Miss Hope said.
She said this year's participating schools included Orange High School which raised $1900, Orange Christian School and Canobolas Rural Technology High School which raised about $1000 each.
James Sheahan Catholic High School and Kinross High School also raised money but the amounts were not known at the time of the interview.
This was the first time Canobolas Rural Technology High School has participated and Student Representative Council coordinator Tim Fancey said it was important for the students to show the good work they do and also because some people from the school also use the service.
"For our school it's creating a great community link and building a bit of a reputation as a valuable member of the community," Mr Fancey said.
"Our reputation is not the greatest and these kids however worked really hard to promote the school as a valuable member of the community.
Orange High School captains Andreas Kuegler said they wanted to volunteer for the hot meals outreach program but couldn't due to the COVID pandemic so they raised funds instead.
Fellow captain Ella Lamrock said they raised $1900 at Orange High School with a variety of initiatives including an op-shop last weekend as well as a pie drive.
Orange Christian School representative Calista Krkac said they also raised their $1000 through a variety of fundraising efforts.
"It's a good cause," she said.
However, now the situation with the COVID pandemic has settled down the students are once again considering volunteering their time and Reverend Cunningham said they could use more volunteers to help with the cooking and food preparation and people to not need to be church members to participate.
"Although it's started by the uniting church, most of our volunteers are not from the Uniting Church so there's people from across the community, school involvement in different ways as well," Reverend Cunningham said.
"There's definitely a need and while we have the resources and capability to do it we will but we couldn't do it without the support from the community so this from the schools has been really generous and really uplifted people that what we are doing is being supported by people from across the community."
In previous years the fundraising efforts went towards The Orchard women's shelter and last year was Neami mental health service, both based in Orange.
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Tanya Marschke
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
