NZ – Marfell Community Breakfast

RRT New Plymouth was pleased to help support the Marfell School community breakfast programme.

The Marfell School program, in a lower-income area of New Plymouth, has been run by good-hearted volunteers for a number of years. It provides about 30 children at the school with breakfast before school starts. When RRT heard that the program was to be trialled for the first time through the school holidays in July 2015, we were keen to help.

RRT provided eggs, sausages and cups of Milo in addition to the porridge, Weet-Bix and toast provided by the community volunteers.

We appreciated the opportunity to support this community. We heard of tough circumstances, large families and tight budgets. And we also saw the love of the volunteers who help the program going every school day. We met the community board chairman who every week collects the food for the program from supermarkets, Fonterra, the Red Cross, and has it ready for the kids at the school. We heard of the school principal who, if the need arises, dips into her own pocket to pay for students’ school trips where parents can’t afford it.

One community volunteer took our leftover sausages home, turned them into a tasty casserole with onions and vegetables, which was then distributed to families in need – and gratefully received.

We met good people doing good, and we were pleased to support them.