St Cuthberts students sharing a cuppa for ‘ChariTea’

St Cuthberts students sharing a cuppa for ‘ChariTea’

An entrepreneurial group of eight St Cuthberts College students have raised hundreds of dollars for the Auckland City Mission – simply by banking on kiwis’ love of a good cup of tea.

The students are part of the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme, which offers young people the opportunity to set up and run their own businesses for the school year.

Having heard that the Mission served 222,800 hot drinks to Auckland’s homeless community last year, the Epsom-based students decided to tie their project into the statistic by launching a company selling tea – with proceeds going to the Mission – and dubbed their project ‘ChariTea’.

“We've enjoyed working in our large team of eight girls and being able to bounce ideas off each other, while also working hard both in the business and at school. The opportunity to support the Auckland City Mission is very important to us and we are very pleased to be able to make a contribution,” says St Cuthberts student and ChariTea public relations director, Anna Blair.

Blair and seven other female students, including Lauren Sheed, Sophie Burns, Stef Ferguson, Greer Amos, Claudia Clatworthy, Minerva Peters and Georgia Callaghan, teamed up with New Zealand-based tea company TeaTotal, who supplied them with the raw product, and sold four flavours for $10 each plus shipping. Two months into the project, they’ve nearly sold out.

In order to learn as much as possible about the realities of the business world, each student took on a particular role – such as public relations, finance, or sales director. The students were tasked with ordering raw product, promoting the business, launching a website, ensuring orders were filled and managing the finances.

Auckland City Missioner, Dame Diane Robertson, says the ChariTea initiative is a fantastic example of what young people can achieve when it comes to giving back to the community.

“It is wonderful to see a group of young people fully embrace the concept of corporate social responsibility,” says Dame Robertson. “We’re extremely grateful to have been chosen as the recipient of the ChariTea proceeds and hope that the students behind the project have gained skills that will serve as building blocks towards successful careers in years to come.”

Blair says she and the other ChariTea students have learned some valuable lessons through the initiative.

“This experience has taught us a lot. We have learnt about running a company, the importance of working well in a team, as well as good direction and strategy,” says Blair. “It’s about the process of taking an idea and turning it into a viable business. We’ve all enjoyed the challenge of making it happen.”

ChariTea will officially close in mid-October. For more information, visit www.charitea.co.nz

ENDS

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