Fettes students gathered a huge volume of donations in advance of Sunday's annual Harvest Thanksgiving, and on Monday a fleet of vehicles from five foodbanks from across Edinburgh, coordinated by Edinburgh City Mission, was loaded up by student volunteers. 

Fettes College Chaplain, Neil McCleery, said “It is so important to engage our young people in an ongoing culture of giving back, and it has been rewarding over these past weeks to see how enthusiastically and generously our students have rallied to provide for those who find themselves in need. In engaging our students in partnership with charities and community organisations, we aim to build in them a lifelong commitment to service of others, and a capacity for leadership and service in the wider world for which we are preparing them.

Duncan Cuthill, CEO of Edinburgh City Mission, said “Once again, we were delighted that the Fettes College students supported Edinburgh City Mission’s Foodbank+ network of church-based foodbanks around the city with another remarkably generous donation of food. This was collected and distributed across our network this week and it will be given to those who are in a crisis situation.  In partnership with local churches, our aim is to help alleviate hardship, address the cause of someone’s crisis and put other support around them, beyond the provision of food support. 

“We are grateful to the Fettes College students for playing a vital part in enabling us to provide food support to people in our city."