Ainsley Stone is hoping for a nine-fold increase in donations for the One Can program, just two years after she first put the call out to students at Wodonga Primary School.
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Ms Stone started the project after deciding to commit to donating one can of food to Uniting Care's Emergency Food Relief program each week.
Wodonga Primary School got involved soon after, and very soon the project surpassed the initial target of 270 donations.
To date, the project has donated 19,000 items to the relief program.
This year, all nine schools in the Wodonga Federation of Government Schools will participate in the drive – leading to hopes for the biggest donation drive in the program's short history.
“This will be the first time all the schools have been involved,” Ms Stone said.
“We've had Wodonga Primary School on board for the last two years, but their principal was really keen to share the initiative across all the schools and get more people involved.”
One in 12 Wodonga households benefit from Uniting Care’s assistance on a regular basis.
With cans of food available for less than a dollar at most supermarkets, Ms Stone said she was confident Wodonga families would get behind the drive.
“The kids have taken to this like ducks to water,” she said.
“They’ve created classroom challenges where each class sets a target for cans, so it becomes a bit of a game to see who can collect the most.
“It’s a really easy concept for them to bring to life, it makes you realise it doesn’t have to be a big thing.
“Most of us can easily afford to chip in something small like that without too much trouble.”
Ms Stone said she was hoping the sheer weight of numbers would help the program set a personal best in the lead-up to Christmas.
“Last year Wodonga Primary donated 900 cans alone, so with nine schools coming on board this year we’re expecting big things,” she said.
“We’re really hoping to make a big difference this time around.”
All kinds of canned food can be donated to the One Can program.
Though the schools program has been a success over the last two years, Ms Stone said she was also hoping local businesses could get in on the act.
“We’re also encouraging local businesses to create a stake of cans as we get closer to Christmas,” she said.
“We’ve donated 19,000 items over the last two years, which was amazing after our initial goal when we started was to get just a few hundred within a year.”
Details on how to get involved can be found on the One Can’s project’s Facebook page.