In a heart-warming display of community spirit, the Lions Club of Gippsland Lakes Lionesses recently joined forces with the Lakes Entrance Lions Club and local secondary students to prepare hundreds of school lunches for district students.At the start of each school term, the Lionesses meet to transform 50 loaves of bread into fresh sandwiches.
The completed lunches are distributed to Lakes Entrance Secondary College, Lakes Entrance Primary School, St Brendan’s Primary School and Toorloo Arm Primary School, where they are frozen and used to support students in need throughout the term.
The essential community initiative is funded by the Lakes Entrance Lions Club, which covers the cost of the bread, with sandwich ingredients supplied by national school-lunch charity Eat Up Australia.Lionesses President Marilyn Varone praised the collaborative effort, noting that the extra hands made light work of the task. While husbands and partners are often on standby to help, this term saw a fresh group of volunteers step up.
“We didn’t need them this time as we had a good group of volunteers. Plus, this term, we had students from the Lakes Entrance Secondary College come to help and I must say we were impressed by this lovely group of kids,” Ms Varone said.
“Between all the groups, we had the sandwiches made in no time at all.”
The partnership also provided a valuable hands-on learning experience for the local youth involved.
Lakes Entrance Secondary College assistant senior sub school leader Miranda South said she was delighted to see the students actively engaging with their local community.
“Being involved in projects like this gives our VCE Vocational Major (VM) students the chance to develop workplace and teamwork skills while making a positive contribution to the community,” Ms South said.
