Barnsley Secondary School Students Take Action To Raise Awareness Of Food Poverty

A group of teenagers from a secondary school in Barnsley have raised hundreds of pounds for charity as part of their GCSE work.

The five Year 10 students, all from Outwood Academy Shafton, began working with Barnsley Foodbank as part of their GCSE Citizenship ‘taking action’ programme. The aim of the work was to help raise awareness in the local community of food poverty.

This led to the five students, Maddie, Eleanor, Isobel, Leah and Shannon, with guidance from Barnsley Foodbank, organising and establishing a foodbank within Outwood Academy Shafton, for the wider community to also contribute to and to further support the charity.

Sarah Riley, the teacher at Outwood Academy Shafton who helped organise the bag pack fundraiser, said: “We are so proud of the fantastic work done by Maddie, Eleanor, Isobel, Leah and Shannon. They have shown such a strong-willed support for the Barnsley Foodbank, and their efforts have been highly impressive.

“At Outwood Academy Shafton, we believe in putting students first, raising standards and transforming lives. One of the ways we do this is by encouraging all our students to make a difference in the wider community.

“This is exactly what Maddie, Eleanor, Isobel, Leah, and Shannon did.

“Along with all those who helped by either attending the Tesco bag packing, or bringing in food for the Academy’s foodbank.”

As part of the Academy’s support for Barnsley Foodbank, an expanded group of enthusiastic students, including other members of the five girls’ Citizenship group as well Year 7 and Year 8 students, took part in a fundraising bag pack at Tesco in Stairfoot.

The Outwood Academy Shafton team managed to help raise £278.65.

Suzanne Storey, Barnsley Foodbank Manager, said: “On behalf of myself and Barnsley Foodbank, thank you to Sarah and the students at Outwood Academy Shafton.

“They were a delight to work with and were so professional.  They are a credit to the Academy, and we had lots of praise from both customers at Tesco and the staff at Tesco.”