Social Justice and Sustainability In Action at St. Jude’s – Visit from Frankston Council Mayor

St. Jude’s School is a 5 Star Sustainable School. In keeping with eliminating our paper waste costs and our school vision of Mercy, Peace and Love, a group of senior students, named Mini Vinnies in coordination with St. Vincent de Paul Society collect shredded paper,cardboard and paper scraps that can be recycled on a weekly basis throughout the school. St. Vincent de Paul (SVDP) collect the paper and transport it to Australian Paper Recovery in Dandenong. For every ton of paper $110.00 goes to St. Vincent de Paul to fund their social justice initiatives. Our school is extremely pleased and proud to learn we are finalists in the Keep Victoria Beautiful Award. Our students work hard to maintain our lovely native school grounds and take pride in trying to be sustainable in their everyday actions.We have been able to reduce the costs of disposing of paper by about $1200.00 per year. Our students are encouraged to foster and develop a sense of social justice and this paper collection initiative is an action that helps our students to contribute and reach out to the needy people of the Langwarrin area.

Today we were honoured with a visit by the Mayor of Frankston, Councillor Michael O’Reilly who came to see our Mini Vinnies and E.L.F. teams in action. Councillor Michael O’Reilly asked the students about the school initiative and was impressed by the fact that we save money for the school and at the same time raise funds for St. Vincent de Paul.

Our school would be incredibly honoured to be a winner of the Keep Victoria Beautiful School Award.