Volunteer effort for St Vinnies
GOING through 40 or 50 loaves of bread, the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) School Sefton parent, teacher and parishioner community make 400 sandwiches every month for the St Vincent De Paul night patrol program.
Doing this service for about four years, this year saw them step up their support by actually joining the night patrol and doing behind the scenes work at Vinnies’ Lewisham depot where they prepare food and pack toiletries and snack packs and perform other jobs in readiness for the trucks to go out at night.
IHM Family Educator Claude Bourizk said: “We live our faith in action by caring for and nurturing the less fortunate in our society and are happy to do whatever we can.
“We have a beautiful community and the parents and parishioners are always doing things to help, dropping off cash donations, salad items or bread.
“We’ve also started a Mini Vinnies program for the students who help us pack items for the night patrol.
“Our Principal John Kennedy is a great supporter of the initiative and encourages the students to help.
“We all try to be the face, hands and feet of Jesus Christ, and as he did, we do it with love for the less fortunate in our society.”
With the deep freezer at the school broken down, the school is now fundraising to purchase another and is always grateful for any donations from the wider community.
“We always need ham, cheese, salad ingredients including lettuce, tomato and beetroot which we go through a lot of as well as mayonnaise, margarine and bread,” Ms Bourizk added.
If you can help, drop off items to the school at 30 Proctor Parade, Sefton, or call 9644 3555 for pickup.
