An act of kindness as a toddler set a Caringbah student on the path to creating a national movement and a nomination in the 2022 NSW Women of the Year Awards.

Caringbah North Public School Year 4 student Lennox Wade has been selected as a finalist in the One to Watch category.

At age 3, Lennox started a movement called ‘Snacktember’ to collect snacks and share them with underprivileged children which has since grown to operate around Australia.

Lennox said she started Snacktember when she was at preschool because she wanted to make the world a better place by helping kids to have a decent lunch.

“My mum said we never eat the chicken chips and I said, ‘give them to the kids who need them’,” Lennox said.

“Mostly I work with OzHarvest but other groups, too. Last year we collected 1000kg of snacks.”

Caringbah North Public School principal Sharon Tollis said she had been impressed by Lennox’s dedication to helping others since they first met.

“I remember Lennox and her Mum meeting me, enrolling for Kindergarten. They mentioned that Lennox had this project and would the school support it”, Ms Tollis said.

“Five years on we are excited that Lennox is still going strong. Even through lockdown Lennox found ways to get families and businesses to come on board and help.”

During lockdown, Lennox realised her school canteen was closed and was saddened to learn that some of the food would not last until students would be back on site.

In response Lennox arranged for the canteen’s supply of chips to be delivered to the OzHarvest market in Waterloo.

Also nominated in The One to Watch Award is Kooringal High School’s Ariba Omar and Emmaville Central School’s Laura Carter.

Ariba, a Year 7 student from Wagga Wagga, began participating in fundraising events with her parents eight years ago.

She loves volunteering for Cancer Council, MS Readathon, Variety’s Hair with Heart, and has been advocating to minimise screen time, spoken against bullying and the importance of being cyber safe.

Laura developed a wide range of wellbeing projects for her school such as Female Empowerment Day and has won a grant for her community at Emmaville to gain access to free fitness equipment.

Laura’s solution was to purchase a variety of home exercise equipment and pack it into portable ‘Fit Kits’.

The idea won her last year’s Heart Foundation Active Australia Innovation Challenge.

The NSW Women of the Year Awards recognise and celebrate the outstanding contribution made by women across NSW. Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony tomorrow.