AS schoolchildren get ready for the start of a new term, pupils from one primary can reflect on a summer that brought pride to their school and memories of a great teacher sadly no longer with us.
MFC Foundation’s Mark Carney takes up the story….
Through MFC Foundation, Egglescliffe Primary School were invited to take part in this year’s Social Action Challenge, a Premier League Primary Stars Target that encourages young people to take practical action in service of others.
The school were given £50 from MFCF, with the goal being to turn it into as sizable a donation to charity as possible. Their entry was to be a cookbook, with the recipes created by the children for children and grown-ups alike to try and recreate at home.
Part of the reasoning for this was to promote a love of food and cooking, and help to develop positive relationships with food and cooking for the children and give them opportunities to improve a wide range of skills. The other reason was to pay respect and tribute to the memory of their late teacher, Mrs Grainge.
Sarah Grainge was adored by the children and was an exceptionally well respected and loved member of staff at the school. Sarah threw herself into every project and raised awareness of mental health throughout the school. Her kindness was far outreaching, and in her personal life she raised money for Cancer Research UK and Type 1 Diabetes by running half marathons and creating baking masterpieces, and so much more. In her memory, all funds raised, including those made through the sale of the cookbook, would be donated to Cancer Research UK.
A six-week project was intensive and fulfilling.
We also made sure it ticked all of the #iwill principles and fitted with the core ideals of the challenge.
- Reflective – With opportunities to learn, process and develop, each week allowed us to look at a different part of the challenge and then reflect on its successes and struggles
- Challenging – The concept of publishing a cookbook, written by the children and funded with bake sales, games and donations from local communities is certainly a challenge
- Embedded – The book, and its recipes, are all created by the children and written for other children, to get them into the kitchen and to help them develop a positive and healthy relationship with food
- Youth-Led – The ideas of the stalls, what recipes were chosen and how the businesses were pitched were all led by the children. The book was also written aimed at their needs, both in and outside of the school
- Progressive – Obviously, the stalls would have a limited appeal which is why each week, we’d look at something slightly different to allow sustainability for the duration for the project. The use of raffles, tombola’s, games and different treats being offered each week would ensure customers came back regularly. Then, the sale of the book would become a self-generating business venture, when the possibility of selling out would finance the purchase of further books
- Socially Impactful – With the book being sold locally, it was assessable to more than just the children of Egglescliffe Primary. Furthermore, by inviting local businesses to collaborate with us, it created links and ties that would strengthen the school’s relationship with its community and vice versa. It would also reinforce the positive relationship between pupils and food and cooking, which we hoped would provide a long term foundation for the future
Week 1 – Mind Mapping
The principles were explained to them, as well as what the challenge represented, how it would be structured and what it would hopefully achieve by the end of the 6 weeks. Discussions flowed, ideas were batted about and the children were very creative in some of the ways they were thinking of fundraising – car washes, dog walking, tombolas, craft making, blind auctions, hosting a Year 6 disco and having a car boot sale. In the end though, the consensus in the class was that we would need a variety of different things all based on having stalls and sales, with cakes, bric-a-brac and raffles being the best in terms of appeal, whilst selling ice-pops would meet the demands of the pupils whilst generating the best profit. We did hit a little speed bump which would ultimately prove our inspirational spark – we would need to make the recipes available to the public if we were selling food as well as ensuring a wide range of recipes to meet the ever changing demands of people’s diets. This presented us with a very important question – Could we sell the recipes too?
The idea of the cookbook was born.
Week 2 – All Hands on Deck
Now we had our ideas, we had to take action. Week 2 was a lot of questions, permissions and logistics, with many children creating posters to advertise the fundraising efforts, challenge and the stalls that would be held in week three, as well as starting to collect donations. The children were also tasked with finding recipes that were easy to make (child friendly), cheap where possible, and meet the different needs of the public. Mrs Robertson, the Head Teacher, also provided Mark and the class with a very important contact, Gavin Hatton, at M Media Design, who was able to help with the publication of the book itself. The meeting went well and two points became clear; the task on hand was a big one but the impact would be even bigger. Conversations with the PSHE lead, the Year 5 & 6 teaching staff and Mrs Robertson showed the potential of the book linking to current PSHE, literacy and reading targets for the children, as well as teaching them important lessons about businesses, sustainability and economics. We also made sure it ticked all of the #iwill principles and fitted with the core ideals of the challenge.
- Reflective – With opportunities to learn, process and develop, each week allowed us to look at a different part of the challenge and then reflect on its successes and struggles
- Challenging – The concept of publishing a cookbook, written by the children and funded with bake sales, games and donations from local communities is certainly a challenge
- Embedded – The book, and its recipes, are all created by the children and written for other children, to get them into the kitchen and to help them develop a positive and healthy relationship with food
- Youth-Led – The ideas of the stalls, what recipes were chosen and how the businesses were pitched were all led by the children. The book was also written aimed at their needs, both in and outside of the school
- Progressive – Obviously, the stalls would have a limited appeal which is why each week, we’d look at something slightly different to allow sustainability for the duration for the project. The use of raffles, tombola’s, games and different treats being offered each week would ensure customers came back regularly. Then, the sale of the book would become a self-generating business venture, when the possibility of selling out would finance the purchase of further books
- Socially Impactful – With the book being sold locally, it was assessable to more than just the children of Egglescliffe Primary. Furthermore, by inviting local businesses to collaborate with us, it created links and ties that would strengthen the school’s relationship with its community and vice versa. It would also reinforce the positive relationship between pupils and food and cooking, which we hoped would provide a long term foundation for the future
Week 3 – A Soft Opening
The recipes were flowing, the initial design concepts were being created and it was the first week of the stalls – the buzz was tangible! We had used our initial £50 to purchase icepops and sweets, as well as a hamper and book of raffle tickets and the goal was to see how much revenue we could generate. The icepops were bought and sold, making £5 profit a pack and lots of the pupils brought in their homemade treats and delights that sold incredibly well. The donated items sold made an estimated £50, with the children making up the prices and doing their best to haggle and barter the best possible price. Initial fundraising for the first week was estimated to be over £100 taking into account the costs of buying items. Awareness was raised more importantly and there was already a demand for the stalls next week.
Alongside this, Mark and some of the children took a walk into Yarm to try and sell the idea of a trade to local businesses; if they donated and contributed to the creation of the book, we would include one of their recipes and advertise their business. The children were keen, well-rehearsed and the interactions between them and the businesses were great at drumming up support and awareness of the project and getting companies on board.
Week 4 – The Main Event
A donation of some branded merchandise from MFC Foundation was decorated (with sweets, biscuits and a lovely bow) and raffled, making an estimated £120 in a week. More icepops were sold (the heat helped) and we had more cake for sale than we could sell – the size of the crowd was incredible. The children were the face of it all, taking the money, haggling the prices and upselling the products to maximise income. They decided their own roles and responsibilities, allocating areas to operate or which tasks to be completed, and the hive of activity and the way they stood up to the responsibility was a joy to watch and showed maturity beyond their years. Staff and parents alike were incredibly proud of them, and rightly so. Fundraising was at an estimated £500 with local companies such as Hobo Coffee House, Treats of Yarm, and Strickland & Holt making donations too, and in the background, most of the content was finalised and the book was taking shape. We also had an idea of how much the book would cost, and a real understanding on what our fundraising target would be – £720, to amount needed to buy the books, felt attainable and appropriate for what we were trying to achieve.
Week 5 – The Big Game
Throughout the previous few weeks, the school had also been gearing up for its ‘Active Week’, a whole school timetable of activities, exercise and movement. To compliment both ongoing events, a charity football game was to be held inviting the pupils to play a match vs their parents. Tickets would be sold to players and spectators, with the proceeds going towards the fundraising for the cookbook. Stalls were scattered about the field selling our usual mix of cakes, icepops and the remaining bric-a-brac being offered on a ‘donate as you feel’ basis. The game was a great success, being played in three halves; a KS1 team beating their parents 2-1, lower KS2 drawing 2-2 and the upper KS2 team taking a tough beating of 1-4 to give an over score of 7-5 to the parents. We also held a “How Many Sweets in the Jar?” competition, with people being offered the chance to win a whole jar of sweets with a 50p guess. This raised an estimated amount of £60.
We had done all we could do, and were hopeful of meeting our fundraising target of £720. The final count revealed a grand total of £741.59
All that was left to do now was get the design of the finalised and completed in time to be sold next week at the launch.
Week 6 – The Launch
The books were edited, altered, finalised and sent to the printers in a flurry as excitement in the children grew. They knew they had hit their target, they had seen some drafts of the books and many had “reshoots” for the photos to ensure the final product best represented the hard work, dedication and commitment they had shown from the first day. The plan was to sell the books on the same day as the end of year school production (Joseph and his Technicolour Dream Coat) as this would maximise customer traffic at the school and both the show and the book launch were a great success. 101 books were sold on the first day, raising an instant £353.50 for Cancer Research UK. The remaining books would be distributed throughout a range of local shops, churches, workplaces and family circles, increasing the total money raised for Cancer Research UK and showcasing the final product to as many people as possible. There has also been a JustGiving page set up to help raise further donations for both the book and for Cancer Research UK, and with the help of Sam Richardson at the Strickies Hub and the Foundation, work on creating more awareness via Social Media has begun. The kids are extremely proud of what they have achieved as is everyone related to the project, and so far the amount raised for Cancer Research UK is estimated to be well over £1,000.
Mark Carney
PLPS Project Worker
MFC Foundation
The recipe book sold out quickly. If you download the free 44-page PDF version here A5 Recipe book, please make a donation to Cancer Research UK.
*An abridged version of this story first appeared in the match programme for the Middlesbrough v Sheffield United on August 14th.
