GENEROUS kids from Lochgelly West Primary School are working hard to collect 4200 tins of food to donate to the Benarty Food Bank - enough to line the 300m trail which surrounds their school.

The excited children from the school’s Primary 3S class have been leading the way with their collection, and met with Stephen Nardone from Benarty Food Bank; and Ann Belton, from Lochgelly Library; to show them all the hard work they had done.

“At Harvest Time we held a collection for the food bank and achieved an excellent response, but the children wanted to do more and keep collecting,” explained headteacher Morag Steele, “We have got a path around the perimeter of the school called the West Way, and the children want to line it with tins by Christmas – that is the ambitious goal they have given themselves.” The kids have managed to collect over 170 tins already, but in the seven week run-up to the Christmas holidays they’ll need to reach a total of 4200 to make sure they can line the whole perimeter. But Mrs Steele and the staff at Lochgelly West believe there is no doubt that the children will do what they have set out to do.

“Our children are determined they are going to do it-we have to make sure it happens,” she said.

In order to help collect as many tins as possible, there will be drop-off points at Lochgelly West Primary School and the library, in the Lochgelly Centre.

Sophie and Erin, both 7 years old, are from the Primary 3S class that have been leading the project, and were keen to tell the Times how well their class had been doing.

“We measured how many tins we could fit into one metre, and sometimes it was 13, 14 or 15 tins,” explained Sophie. Then we went outside and took it in turns to measure 10 metres of the West Way with the trundle wheel! It’s 300 metres, so we need 4200 tins.” “We’ve got 172 tins so far,” added Erin. “We’ve got beans, soup, custard and even some Peppa Pig and Hello Kitty pasta!” The girls aren’t at all fazed by how many tins they need to collect - they are planning to get everyone involved. “We’re going to tell mums, dads, grandparents and the community,” said Sophie. “And I did a poster with huge writing that said, ‘Thank you for supporting Lochgelly West Primary School’s Tin Trail Challenge’.” Erin added, “I’m excited! I wrote a letter to the food bank to tell them how many tins we need. And I have friends from St Pat’s who aren’t at this school, so I’m going to tell them about it too.” The project is helping to build on the class topic for this term, ‘Lochgelly’, and the kids are planning to put posters up around the town to drum up support. Janet Gibson, from Dunfermline Food Bank, went along to speak to the pupils and praised them for their initiative and told them that tins needed to be in date and not bashed Mrs Steele thinks that the project is really resonating with the youngsters. “The children understand it, they want to help other children and their families,” she said.

“It is a joy to see our children working on something so real that will have a direct positive impact on youngsters in our local community. All our children should be on a level playing field when they enter our school and this is not the case if they are hungry. Projects like these highlight a real sense of community – in certain cases a child’s voice can be stronger than an adult’s.” Stephen Nardone, from the Benarty Food Bank, also praised the work of the children and staff. “It’s fantastic,” he said, “It’s great when the school and the community work together for less fortunate people. If everyone had this kind of attitude we wouldn’t have the problems we have now!

“I just want to say a big thank-you to the school and the leaders for starting this project up.” The kids are aiming to have enough tins to line the trail by the week beginning Monday 15th December, and will stop at nothing to make sure they achieve their goal.

They are looking to work with local businesses and organisations to help bring the collection along, and are urging anybody that wants to help, either by donating food or offering space for a drop-off site, to get in touch with the school on 01592 583445.

Benarty Food Bank is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 4pm-6pm at Crosshill Community Centre.