Small South Otago school raises nearly $60,000 by selling butter

RNZ News

18-06-2025

Westgold Butter supplied the school with 250 gram blocks which usually sell for $4 with the school able to keep $1 from each block sold. File picture.
Photo:
supplied
A small South Otago school has raised nearly $60,000 by selling butter.
The rising price of butter has seen a number of schools ditch traditional fundraisers in favour of
selling the blocks
instead.
Kaitangata School managed to sell just under 15,000 blocks of butter throughout the community earning them a grand total of $59,000, with some blocks travelling as far as Christchurch.
Brittany Morrison is both a teacher and parent at the school, as well as being the treasurer and secretary of the school community group which ran the fundraiser.
She said the outcome of the fundraiser completely exceeded their expectations.
"We did not expect to sell that much at all... we didn't know if we were gonna even sell 400 blocks and to sell nearly 15,000 is insane."
Morrison said the school was home to only 100 students, with their usual once a term fundraiser raising around $2000.
She said the school was overwhelmed by what they were going to spend the money on.
"We were hoping to purchase 40 pairs of headphones for the classes and a basketball hoop. We can buy multiple of those now. It's unreal. We can't believe when the money started rolling in."
Butter company Westgold has been supplying the 250 gram blocks which normally sell for $4, and schools get to keep $1 per block.
Despite the bargain, Morrison said future fundraisers might not yield such big results, with Westgold having to up their prices to keep up with the quick rising butter market.
"They're putting it up to $5.15 for a 250 gram block, which is a lot more than what we paid. The price went up on the first of June."
However Kaitangata School managed to avoid the price hike.
"Westgold actually contacted us to try and get our orders in before the first of June, but when they heard that our fundraiser was still had about 10 days to go, they were really good and they understood and they kept their word and we got it for $4."
The school largely managed the successful sales through order forms, handing the forms out to 60 families at the school, who then passed it on the friends, family and local businesses.
"Local cafes bought some off us. It went as far as I think to someone up in Christchurch, up to Bernie's Bakery up there."
Morrison managed to sell 1625 blocks of butter herself.
"I sold $6.5k worth of butter just off my order sheet... it was a lot, a lot to deliver."
She said the result of fundraiser meant a huge amount to the small school.
"We have a small school and so any fund-raising we do, we try and do it really well.
"With the success of this butter fundraiser, we probably won't need to fund-raise for the rest of the year."
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