Each month, Storyhouse Early Learning’s Mernda centre undertakes a Kindness Project, giving children, families and educators the chance to take part in meaningful acts of kindness.
“We believe that kindness is one of the most important values we can nurture in young children,” says Bianca, the centre’s Director. “We wanted them to experience firsthand that even the smallest acts of kindness can have a significant impact on someone else’s life.”
For the month of June, the team chose to support Uniting’s Food For Families Winter Appeal — building on 2 years of food drives for the Christmas appeal.
“The Food For Families initiative was the perfect opportunity to involve our children in a real-life act of generosity,” Bianca says.
This time, the centre wanted to bring their own idea to the table. The team settled on 3 pasta recipes, with children, parents, caregivers and staff collecting the ingredients together. Recipe cards were printed and beautifully decorated by the class, and the children helped assemble dinner packs, which were donated to Uniting Epping.
“Collecting items was easy thanks to the generosity of our families, who embraced the initiative by donating pantry staples including pasta, pasta sauce and canned tuna. We intentionally selected these items because they are affordable, readily available and could easily be combined into simple dinner packs for families to enjoy”, says Bianca.
For Bianca and the Storyhouse Early Learning community, “this initiative is about much more than providing food. It is about building a community for our children and families where kindness, generosity and compassion are lived values.”
The team brought this message to life with the children. “We spoke with the children about how every family is different and that sometimes people need a little extra help. We focused our conversations on kindness, caring for others, and how sharing what we have can ‘fill someone’s bucket’. Creating the illustrated recipe cards became a beautiful way for them to send not only a meal, but also a message of care and kindness,” says Bianca.
“By actively participating in the project, our children developed understanding of empathy, compassion and the importance of helping others within our community. The children were so proud of themselves to be involved, and dropping off the dinner packs to Uniting at the end of the month was a rewarding experience, knowing they would soon support families in need.”
Storyhouse Mernda’s pasta packs are a wonderful reminder that kindness can be shared at any age. If your school, workplace or community group is looking for a meaningful way to get involved in Food For Families, we’d love to hear your ideas. Get in touch to find out how you can help families doing it tough.
