Since 2011, the Kids Cooking and Caring Program has linked up with schools across the region, with students donating their time to put together meals that are then handed out at five sites across the week.

Carevan chief executive Stacey Franklin said it had grown in leaps and bounds since then.

“Across the program this year, 800 students will participate,” she said.

“It forms part of their curriculum in community service.

“Across the first term they will cook at the school one day a week, and the next term we have a new group come through.”

Xavier High School is one of eight schools on board with the program this year.

Year 9 student Amy Richardson, 15, took part in the program during the first term and said it was satisfying to know where her hard work was going.

“Every Wednesday a group of us went to help cook different varieties of food,” she said.

“Each house has been promoting it and trying to get everything they can for donations.”

The school community put forward hundreds of non-perishable food items to hand over to Carevan on Tuesday.

Amy Martin, the co-ordinator for Loreto House, said all eight houses within the school had banded together to donate as much as possible.

“We came on board supporting Carevan last year,” she said.

“We started with the cooking program and also raised funds last year, and this time we called on students from across the school to help and they came up with all of this food.”

Schools across the Border have been generous with food donations – on Friday, students from the Huon campus of Wodonga Middle Years College held an event for Carevan.

Ms Franklin said the support from schools and the community was integral.

“A lot of our meat and vegetables comes from FoodShare and the other part of it we purchase," she said.

“We still have people ringing up everyday asking how they can cook for Carevan.

“We can’t really have volunteers under the age of 18 come out to the van, so this is how we get younger people involved.”