Holy Name serve up breakfast

Every Monday morning, Year 6 students from the Mini Vinnies group of Holy Name Primary School, Forster run a weekly Breakfast Club for the school community.

For the past 5 years, the Breakfast Club has provided an opportunity for our students to begin the week sharing a meal in a relaxed and welcoming environment.

Initiated by Pastoral Care Worker (PCW), Lauranne Byrne and Religious Education Coordinator (REC), Genevieve Williamson, the breakfast program is held in MacKillop Hall from 8.30am till 9am, where students are served toast with butter, jam, vegemite or honey and a delicious hot chocolate.

The purpose of the Breakfast Club is to strengthen our school community, where students can socialise and interact with one another, catch up on each other’s weekend activities and build relationships with their PCW.

It also allows students, who may not have eaten before school, the opportunity to enjoy a nutritious breakfast with their peers in a comfortable and non-threatening environment.

Our Mini Vinnies group, under the guidance of our current PCW, Maureen Nicholls, have several duties to prepare the weekly breakfast, such as set up and serve the food and clean up and pack away the equipment before the bell goes.  

The Breakfast Club is also supported by several volunteers, including one grandparent who donates fresh bread from the local bakery, and two other grandparents, Tibby Perry and Cushla Drake, who willingly give up their time to assist with the general running of the Breakfast Club.

Our Mini Vinnies group have a real sense of ‘others’ and enjoy the responsibility that comes along with planning and preparing for the Breakfast Club.

This is only one of the areas that this group demonstrates their faith and leadership in our school. The skills learned, as well as the ‘way of being and thinking’, will support them as they grow into responsible and discerning adults of the future.

School Principal, Christopher Waters said, “It is a wonderful program that allows our school community to gather together as one. It brings Jesus’ call for us to be of service to others, alive in a very real and practical way exhibiting ‘Care and Concern’ for others.”

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