Christmas spirit helping the foodbank

St Thomas More Catholic School Young Vinnies Sophia Wilson, Melissa Kuipers and Ellen Cook helped organise a collection for the foodbank. Photo/George Novak.

A group of students committed to helping those less fortunate have turned their attention to the Tauranga Community Foodbank.

St Thomas More Catholic School's Young Vinnies, the youth arm of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, have helped organise a school collection to contribute to the Bay of Plenty Times Christmas Appeal for the foodbank.

Ellen Cook, 10, said it was important to help those less fortunate. "Some people are a bit more poor than us and they might need some food this Christmas, so we can give food to them."

School secretary Jane Aindow said families had slowly been bringing items in.

St Thomas More School is one of about 10 schools supporting the appeal.

Aquinas College donated the first lot of produce from its community garden to the charity campaign.

Already more than $22,000 in food and cash donations has been raised for the foodbank.