Latymer Upper School on King Street collected 1250 items for the Hammersmith and Fulham Food Bank.
A Hammersmith school was praised today after collecting over 1000 items of food for a local charity this week.
Latymer Upper School on King Street collected 1250 items for the Hammersmith and Fulham Food Bank.
It is thought to be one of the largest private donations the H&F Food Bank has ever received.
Paul Goldsmith, Head of Year 11, said: “I told the students that there are some kids in Hammersmith and Fulham going to bed hungry who won’t be hungry this morning because of them.”
Mr Goldsmith discovered the H&F Food Bank after reading an article a few months back.
He researched the group and even spent some time at the food bank over the summer.
He said: “We had been looking for ways to help our local community. This one was particularly important because it is the community that surrounds our school.”
Although Mr Goldsmith discovered the charity, he was keen to emphasise that it was the students who have driven the project through to its successful conclusion.
Each year group at Latymer has a chosen charity and the Year 11s have combined their GCSE studies with their charity work.
Thirty students out of a year of 139 pupils volunteered to help, with students organising leaflets and writing letters to parents.
Oscar Holmes, 15, and Emilie Ozols, 16, were two of the students who helped organise the campaign.
Oscar said: “We see a lot of what happens around here I think giving something back has a good impact on everyone.”
They both paid tribute to their class-mates for their incredible efforts and generosity, and cited the local nature of the charity as a key factor in their successful campaign.
Emilie said: “ It was a lot closer to our society and our community and we can really see the benefits.”
The food bank was founded in 2010 and is now one of over 200 in the UK alone. Since April 1 2012 the H&F food bank has distributed approximately 9000 meals.
Daphine Aikens, 44, the founder and manager of the H&F Food Bank, said: “It is certainly the biggest amount of food collected by the smallest amount of people that we have ever had.”
She said it was an amazing effort given that the food only came from one year group of the school. One student alone contributed 150 items to the cause.
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