Cooking 4 Learning Christmas Baskets

Cooking 4 Learning Christmas baskets and Volunteer Cooks

Metis Beach CLC

Lynn Fournier

Secondary Cycle 2 students in a Personal Orientation Projects class (POP) used the "incubator" tool kit to develop a social entrepreneurship project over the course of a few weeks.

The students chose to get involved with the local food bank. A first visit was organized where the students met the director and the employees. The big day was planned, the students would cook a lunch with the staff and then help distribute Christmas baskets.

Upon returning to the school the participating students wanted to do more so they created a poster to send out to our parents and encouraged everyone to donate food for the baskets. When the big day arrived, the students were very nervous. The morning was spent cooking the lunch and in the afternoon they had lunch with the clients. The afternoon was spent completing the Christmas baskets (boxes) and helping to distribute to the clients picking them up. Over 100 baskets were given in that one afternoon.

The day was emotional because the students were in contact with many people in difficult situations. According to teacher Lynn Fournier, the students were satisfied with their day of service and would like to do it again. The staff and director from the food bank also appreciated our help and asked us to come back next year.

The work of the students met a genuine need for more volunteers at l'Unitè Domremy, the local food bank.  This collaboration helped encourage youth to volunteer in the future.  

You can read more about the project by clicking here.