Chris Clarke says their "Cook for a Cause" will not only help New Zealand families but will also make an impact on the lives of traumatised children on the other side of the world.
Working in five-hour shifts at Coronet Peak skifield’s commercial kitchen, 19 pupils from years 11-13 cooked 6000 meals between Friday night and yesterday morning.
Once cooked, the meals were packaged and frozen and will be given to City Missions in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown’s Happiness House.
Financial donations mean World Vision is well on the way to its goal of raising $40,000 for Syrian refugee children.
Mr Clarke said the "real magic’’ of the pupils’ idea was to cook for New Zealand families while also raising money for Syrian refugees.
"The Syrian children we’re helping were once just like these students — they had school, friends and comfortable houses.
"Now they’re living in garden sheds and have nothing, so we’re helping them come to terms with trauma and kick-starting their education again."
The money raised would help to build "child-friendly spaces" in a refugee camp in Jordan.
"What these kids have done will have an impact on children, probably of the same age, on the other side of the world."
Pupil Beatrice Onions said they originally planned to cook 800 meals, but the positive response they received from everyone they asked for help led them to set higher and higher goals.
Support from teachers, Coronet Peak staff and "angel celebrity chef" Mark Gregory had been crucial, she said.
World Vision senior schools partnership manager Harley Hamilton, of Christchurch, said the fundraiser was one of the best he had been involved with.
"I’ve never seen anything like it."
● Give to "Cook for a Cause" at: www.worldvision.org.nz/ fundraising/team/cook-for-a-cause/40-hour-famine
