Click here to download a PDF of instructions.

You’ll need:

What to do:

1. Gather leaves, sticks, flowers and seeds from the garden or the park. Ones on the ground work best for gluing and are kinder to the trees

2. Paint one side of a leaf and then press the painted side onto a piece of paper. Use different leaves and coloured paints to cover the paper with different leaf shapes, patterns and sizes

3. Glue some of the different things you collected onto the paper to create a collage.

This is the perfect snack, lunch or dinner during the school holidays, especially when they have friends over. 

Have a variety of ingredients for them to experiment with. Favourites include corn, basil pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, capsicum and sliced meats. It only takes about 15 minutes and is a great activity to get children involved in cooking.

Ingredients

• 1 pita bread per person
  (wholemeal tastes the same for a healthier option)
• Tomato paste
• Mozzarella cheese
• Tomatoes, (small or large)
• Basil

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200°C
2. Spread the tomato paste over the pita bread
3. Add tomatoes and basil
4. Sprinkle grated cheese on top
5. Cook until crisp and brown

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• Half a butternut pumpkin
• Small can of baby beetroots, halved
• 400 grams chickpeas (canned is easiest)
• Handful of rocket
• Cherry tomatoes, halved

Easy dressing

• 2 lemons (juiced)
• 2 tsp white sugar
• 2 crushed garlic cloves
• 1 tbs olive oil

Method

1. Cut the pumpkin in to cubes about 2cm x 2cm
2. Coat with olive oil and roast until brown and soft, set aside and allow to cool.
3. Combine chickpeas, tomatoes, rocket, baby beetroots, and pumpkin
4. Toss through dressing and serve

Try something different

This salad is a great ‘basic’. For variety and flavour, try adding:

• Other vegies, eg: roasted potato, carrot, zucchini
• Meats, eg: grilled chicken strips, tuna
• Spices when roasting the vegies, eg: Moroccan, Indian or Italian.

With a big school it can be hard to get family involvement especially if you are running the same old events like chocolate drives.  Louise, a parent at the school and the fundraising coordinator,  believes that families are sick of having to try to sell chocolates to their friends and families, especially when other schools are trying to sell something similar.

The school chose the herbs and vegies for their fundraiser because it was different to the regular offerings, and one they knew families would be interested in.  They ordered 380 kits–one for every family.

Louise managed the fundraiser with the help of her committee and the office staff.  She tracked each kit and ticked them off as the kit or the money was returned to the school.  She says that it was one of the easiest fundraisers to manage despite the numbers.

The best thing about the fundraiser is that it raised the funds quickly.  The process was simple and the 40% profit was exactly what they needed to boost the bank balance for the P&F Committee.

Louise said that the profits might have even been more than the $6500 that they raised but for the holidays which interfered with the process.  Some families forgot to sell the kits so they were returned.  Just imagine how much they might have raised otherwise!

Louise recommends following up late returns with a phone call.  She said that it brings a much better response than she got from sending home reminder notes with the children.

Running this fundraiser was much easier because the families were more interested and willing to be involved.  The process was smooth and the return was excellent.

Louise and the committee hope to run this fundraiser again to help purchase specific pieces of equipment for the school.

A child care centre in a regional area it isn’t just a child care centre; it’s a community centre.  Everyone gets involved and that’s what makes it exciting.

When Jason and the committee decided to raise funds for the centre using the Living Fundraiser vegie growing kits, they knew they were onto a good thing.  The choice fitted well with the NSW Health program “Munch and Move” which encourages kids to eat well.  It also fitted their intention to raise funds in a way that involved the kids in a learning activity.

The first order was for 40 vegie kits but when parents saw the brochures, they also wanted herb kits so the centre placed a second order.  Parents took the kits and brochures to work and sold so many that Jason had to re-order 3 more times just to keep up.

What was most exciting for Jason was the way the fundraiser let the learning ‘build out’ of it.  When the kids saw their parents getting involved, they followed and it spread like a movement throughout the area.  Some of the herbs and vegies were planted at the centre and the children checked them every day and learnt to water and tend them.  As the plants grew, the kids would proudly take their parents and grandparents to visit the garden and see how well it was doing.

The fundraiser was a double bonus.  Not only did it raise funds for the centre, it provided food for the kids to eat, and it was food that they had grown themselves.

Jason says that this was one of the simpler fundraisers they had ever run and the 40% return was amazing.  There was very little work involved because all he had to do was to order according to demand.  The parents were pleased to be running a fundraiser that was healthy and educational.

For anyone considering running this fundraiser, especially in a regional area, Jason recommends:

• Getting the staff involved before the kits arrive
• Getting the support of local businesses even if only to have the brochures on their counters
• Choose the right time of year so the plants grow to their best
• Have a clear start and finish date
• Encourage the kids to show off their gardens and share recipes

He also says that you must be ready to roll as soon as the kits arrive because once they start selling, people will want more.

Overall, the fundraiser was simple with great profit for the centre and one that everyone chose to be involved in.  It benefited the kids and it benefited the centre and that was a great thing for the community.  They plan on running this fundraiser again.

10c from every grow-in-the-bag herb kit is donated to support the school and its efforts to support children in Cambodia.

Here’s the latest news from Australians for Cambodian Education (ACE) who run the Happy School.

Student represents Cambodia in Paris

Congratulations Brospick Chan, a 16 year old Happy School student who recently represented Cambodia in the global Homeless World Cup in Paris.

Vocational training program launched

ACE are continually looking at ways to give The Happy School students better opportunities in life. They have recently rolled out a vocational training program in partnership with The Intercontinental Hotel in Phnom Penh. It’s a comprehensive traineeship, which offers students a genuine career path in international hospitality.

New Director and new life skills program

The new school director Vanna Peou has introduced “Life Skills” training into the school curriculum which is designed to improve social skills and prepare students for life after The Happy School.

Melbourne group sponsors new toilet block

St. Stephens Church in Williamstown recently made a generous donation that will be used to build a new toilet block at The Happy School.
 Sometimes it’s the little things that count and new toilets will make a big difference to the lives of The Happy School students.

Rickshaw Run for the kids

Two Germans are about to participate in The Rickshaw Run in India and raise funds for The Happy School. The Rickshaw Run involves more than 80 teams racing from one end of India to the other in motorised Rickshaws (or Tuk-Tuks as they are known in Thailand). Find out more about The Rickshaw Run here.

The school is very committed to the policy and supports it with their Kitchen Classroom program where children grow and then eat their own vegies.

They selected our herb kits. Suddenly, Esther (a parent at the school) found herself managing a fundraiser for 248 families. When you are managing a fundraiser for a big number of families, the coordination can be tricky. Esther found that the best solution was to have one person in charge of the whole event, supported by other helpers.

When one person manages the process she can keep track of the number of kits going out, being sold and money being returned. There is only one set of records to manage. The kits were distributed to each family via their eldest child. Esther developed a spreadsheet to record the activity of each family. It allowed her to track who still had kits, who had returned them, who had returned the money and who needed to be followed up.

The fundraiser ran for one month. The return deadline was published in the school newsletter and followed up with weekly reminder letters. For two weeks a volunteer was available in the foyer to collect money and any leftover kits. It was made as simple as possible for families to manage.

While the coordination of the fundraiser involved a bit of work, Esther says that the reward was worth it. “It was a lot less work than a Trivia Night and yet raised the same amount of money” she said. In the end, they raised a whopping $4,000 from a fundraiser that supported the educational principles of the school.

Esther recommends getting the teachers involved in the process. They are the ones who will help with distributing the kits and so they need to be familiar with the important dates and information.

A Trivia Night with all the work it takes to find sponsors, sell tickets, and find MC’s or sell a few herb kits? Esther knows which she would choose. The school was so pleased with the result that they intend to run the fundraiser again in the future.

Ether’s Top Tips

1. Have one person in charge supported by helpers
2. Keep track of the number of kits going out and money being returned using a spreadsheet
3. Send weekly reminders to your families of when they need to return their money
4. Have someone responsible for collecting money and leftover items. Make it easy for people to locate them.
5. Get teachers involved and make them aware of key dates and information so they can keep their class on track

• A water or soft drink bottle with a plastic cap
• A hammer
• A thin nail (the thinner the better)

You might be surprised to know that for Trish Foster and Victoria Point Early Learning Centre 2 it was without mention of money or fundraising at all.

Instead, the centre focused on the learning and development of the children and chose a fundraiser that would support the early learning framework by getting kids involved in creating their own learning experience.

The centre chose our vegie and herb growing kits (mixing the bags so they had 5 of each product) and tied them in with the theme of healthy eating, sustainability and the growth cycle of plants.

The children and their families were encouraged to grow their own products and decide how they would be used. The children were an active part of the process, learning how to care for the plants as well as helping choose the way they were cooked or eaten.

The centre’s weekly newsletter included stories from families showing how successful they had been in growing their own produce and how they harvested and used them. This encouraged the other families to stay actively involved in the process and to share their successes as well.

The centre chose the healthy eating theme because it is supports one of their basic principles but also as an alternative to the chocolate drive being run by the local school. It was easy for parents to see which fundraiser to support.

Trish says that one of the big keys to their success was not focusing on the money. She recommends concentrating on the education of the kids. They should be your main focus anyway. She did not mention money at all and no one even questioned it. Instead she encouraged families to use the products as a way to spend time together and share learning.

Her other tip is not to put pressure on the families to participate. Let them choose to be part of the process. This gave great success with the learning AND with the fundraiser. Some parents even ordered more once the first kits had sold out.

What a clever way to use a fundraiser so that not only do the children benefit from the funds raised, they also benefit from the way it was raised.

When you run a small after school program there isn’t a lot of money available to support your normal activities, let alone your fundraising efforts.

That was the problem that Dyan from Eight Mile Plains Early Learning Centre in Brisbane faced when searching for a way to raise funds without having to spend money that she didn’t have.

Dyan chose Living Fundraisers because, unlike the other fundraising options, she did not have to pay for the products up-front. That gave her a great way to create funds without being out of pocket at any stage.

Also important to her was the chance to offer a healthy alternative to the chocolate drives that were being offered by other places in the area.

Dyan chose the herb and vegie kits and mixed them so that every family had some of each.

Because the children can’t leave the centre Dyan needs to provide new and stimulating activities on site. The children asked for an XBOX360 so that was their target. She talked with the kids while the parents were present so that the message was clear. If the kids were to get their XBOX the families had to help by raising funds. Everyone was enthusiastic and pleased to be involved in something that wasn’t chocolate! One parent who was unable to devote the time to the fundraiser bought a whole kit and donated it to the program.

The kids are now growing their own herbs and vegies at the centre. They are able to grow, harvest and eat their own produce.

Dyan is thrilled with the results of the drive. Despite only having 16 children in the after school program, she sold 20 kits. She sold $140 worth on the first weekend and has even collected order forms for a top up order. This is a much better result than the last fundraiser they ran which only raised $10.

The financial results have been great and the unexpected new planting activity for the kids has been a bonus. Dyan says that she will run a Living Fundraiser again shortly and this time she will get the whole centre involve. She noticed that the parents who had children in the other programs at the centre were becoming interested in the kits she was selling.

Dyan believes that people are looking for something different to the traditional fundraiser and this is it.