Rural primary schools have received more than $109,000 from ANZCO Foods as part of the organisation’s Sponsor a School Programme.
ANZCO Foods works with local dairy farming families who nominate a rural primary school to receive a donation from the company that is linked to supply.
ANZCO Foods has donated more than $1.4 million to rural schools since the programme began in 2011.
The donations have been used for a range of resources including playground bark, fruit and vegetable gardens, and extra literacy lessons.
The five South Island schools that received the largest donations from ANZCO Foods were Hinds School, Carew Peel Forest School, Dorie School, Mayfield School and Dunsandel School.
Mayfield School in Canterbury will put the funds towards teacher aides who will give their students additional literacy lessons.
“Our school community is very grateful for the funds donated to us through the ANZCO Foods scheme,” said Mayfield School principal Aroha Stewart.
“We put the $4555.15 we received towards teacher aides to work with our tamariki on extra structured literacy lessons. Without this money, it wouldn’t have been possible to give these students the boost they needed.”
St Joseph’s Opunake School in Taranaki received $3084.
Acting principal Brook Murfitt said they are hoping to put the donation towards improving and expanding the vegetable and fruit gardens at their school.
“We are hugely appreciative of ANZCO’s generosity,” Murfitt said.
“Our school has a Student Environmental Team and part of their role is to plant and take care of five fruit and vegetable gardens. We’re looking at using the funds to purchase more plants, improve the wooden garden frames, and potentially updating our garden tools, so we can continue to look after our gardens throughout the year.”
Shannon Parnham, head of livestock at ANZCO Foods, said the Sponsor a School programme is a rewarding way to directly impact future generations and allow farmers to have a positive input into their local communities.
“It’s fulfilling to know that these donations are providing Kiwi children with tools for essential life skills. This is a company donation from ANZCO – there is no cost to participating dairy farmers.”
