Kingston Primary School set up soup fundraiser to help local homeless people
Year 6 pupils at Kingston Primary School in Thundersley went above and beyond to raise money to help local homeless people recently as they set up their own soup kitchen in support of HARP.
The school, who take a proactive approach to community matters, wanted originally to make soup for HARP, Southend’s leading homeless charity. After some thought provoking discussion they realised that fundraising could help make a real and lasting change to those fighting to overcome homelessness for good.
HARP provided over 67,000 meals to local homeless people last year, and donations of food are vital for them to continue supporting the most vulnerable within the community. When the children learnt that just £5 can help HARP provide a safe, warm place for a rough sleeper to spend the night, they realised that a fundraising event would make an even bigger impact to those in Southend that are homeless. The Year 6 pupils came up with the fabulous idea to make a wonderful vegetable soup which they sold after school for £1.50 a pot.
It was a roaring success and they sold all the soup that they had made and raised an astonishing £105.00 for HARP.
Tesco in Pitsea kindly donated £40 to enable the school to buy the ingredients, and the kind-hearted parents even donated non-perishable food to HARP too.
Lisa Walton, HARP’s Community Fundraiser said “fundraising is such a vital part of our mission to end rough sleeping in Southend, enabling us to continue to expand our services to meet the growing need as the homeless crisis soars across the UK. The people that we support have been through a really traumatic time and, as well as food and shelter, they need support from our trained team to take the steps needed to overcome homelessness for good.”
She continued “this money will go towards making a life changing difference to someone that is homeless in Southend and the children should be immensely proud of themselves.”
If you would like to help HARP end rough sleeping in Southend, click here.
