Tiny hands, big hearts at Grove Academy

The Grove Academy early childhood centre in Oatley, southern Sydney, has made a valuable contribution to the work of the local Shire Salvos through a charity food and clothing drive.

“At Grove Academy, we pride ourselves on our community involvement,” said Kim Tvrtkovic, Educator and Community Coordinator at the centre.” The children have been learning about being kind friends and helping others, and we wanted to extend that by seeing how we could help the community.

“We thought of partnering with the Salvos since you guys have supported the community for the last 100 or more years!”

Children at the centre wanted to donate food for other kids who didn’t have as much as they did – “We are helping hearts to grow bigger,” one child said.

Shire Salvos will distribute the donated food items through its Miranda food relief and assistance centre, where more and more families are presenting and needing support due to economic hardship.

“This generous donation will help us to help others,” said Shire Salvos Miranda Community Coordinator Moira Guthrie. “We love to partner with local organisations and businesses because it allows for people who have the capacity to give to those who are in need. This generosity warms the hearts of both the giver and those receiving.”

Grove Academy Director Olivia Habib stressed the importance of teaching values like compassion and generosity to children from a young age: “People say the first five years of life are the most important … embedding practices of gratitude and giving back will be something they can carry with them for the rest of their lives and impacts the way they view the world from a very young age.”