Harry Sutcliffe reports on how he and fellow sixth form students at Prince Henry's Grammar School have been helping the local community this Christmas

OVER this Christmas period while many have been enjoying themselves and indulging in nice food, not everyone has had this luxury. This is why a small group of Sixth Form students have been busy planning and organising a food bank donation appeal to help support those in the local community who are struggling in recent times to ensure no one will go hungry this Christmas.

This group is made up of both year 12 and 13 students who are studying the ASDAN qualification (Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network) which involves personal development by improving their social and employability skills. This qualification is broken up into six modules and as part of their ‘working together’ module the ASDAN team decided collectively to organise a food bank appeal for their local food bank (Otley Food Bank).

The students really committed themselves to organising the appeal and have pushed hard with the marketing of the appeal to raise awareness throughout school through numerous emails, posters, assemblies and notices targeted at sixth form students to ensure that Otley Food Bank received the maximum amount of donations as Prince Henry’s possibly could give. The ASDAN team also met with the food bank’s manager and kept in close contact with them so that they could find out what in particular was needed by the food bank at this time. This included items such as tinned veg, long-life milk and even mince pies which the students encouraged many to donate.

The ASDAN students were very grateful for the donations as one member, Evan Sykes-Williams said: “We are ecstatic to see how much students have donated this year and I’m sure these donations will make a big difference this Christmas.”

This task was not a small one, yet the students seemed to thoroughly enjoy the experience with another member of ASDAN group, Joe Ritchie saying: “I enjoyed the fact that we had the chance to help so many families out this Christmas and I feel that this has been a very fulfilling and enriching experience.”

Across Prince Henry’s Grammar School it is not just students but also staff who have provided support for this appeal. Sadly, in recent times there has been a significant increase in the number of referrals to food banks across the country, yet the number of donations has been steadily decreasing. Due to this, we also encourage those of you reading to also donate as much as you can as although the sixth form students have done an excellent job of donating, more donations are always needed especially at this time of year as both families and individuals alike are in need of support.