The Pencils Project

12/11/2025

Friends of The Pencils Project: Minuteman Press Tullamarine

Minuteman Press printed large colour posters for our School Stationery Drive on beautiful thick paper and in stunning colours, along with logo stickers for our collection tubs. The posters and tubs are currently displayed in participating schools to promote our stationery drive to school communities.

When it comes to business communications services, Minuteman Press can do it all! With a complete range of products and services and using the latest printing and document management technology, they will handle your projects from start to finish. From full branding packages for new businesses, business cards and branded promotional items to birthday and wedding invitations, the dedicated and experienced staff at Minuteman Press deliver quality every time.

Minuteman Press Tullamarine are ongoing supporters of The Pencils Project and we are truly grateful for their support.

We would love for you to support the businesses that support us!
📍Minuteman Press, 1/89B South Centre Road, Tullamarine
Mark and Edd’s expertise and friendly service are unmatched 🤩

30/10/2025

On the road to Rotary Donations in Kind West Footscray today!

Thank you to our volunteer Paul for your assistance driving the van and loading the donation.

29/10/2025

THANK YOU ❤️🙏
To those who gave their time to sort and pack stationery with us on Saturday!

Together, we packed:
49 boxes and 6 bags of stationery for Rotary Donations in Kind West Footscray
10 boxes for Big Group Hug
4 boxes for a local secondary school
3 boxes for a local primary school
3 boxes for Northern Health
2 boxes for Backpacks 4 VIC Kids
1 box for a Special Development School
1 box for Glenroy Neighbourhood House
1 box for Continue the Voice
50 pencil cases (filled) for Nourishing Neighbours

This was only achieved thanks to all the incredible people who turned up on the day, many staying much longer than they originally intended because they were having too much fun 😃 Thank you for volunteering your time and energy.

We are also grateful to our ‘in home’ volunteers tirelessly processing stationery at home in the lead up to our sorting day. Thanks to their efforts, we could process and pack a lot more stationery on the day much more quickly.

A truly wonderful part of the day is bringing together so many lovely, like-minded people for a common cause ❤️

We are busy getting the donations out to our recipient groups, alongside coordinating our School Stationery Drive. If you would like to volunteer with us, please send us a message - we are always looking for stationery sorters, drivers and packers 🚘✏️

11/10/2025

📢 UPDATE - 10am -12pm shifts are full! 💕
We still need a few more hands for 9-10am, 1-5pm Please sign up if you are available to assist ✏️

📢 STATIONERY SORTING DAY

Saturday 25 October

📍Keilor East
🕕 Choose your time slot (between 9am-5pm)
🤝 If you can spare an hour or two to sort and pack stationerThe Pencils Project be so grateful for your helping hands.
Sign up here ⬇️

https://forms.gle/keTanbyD6Gs66nXW6

The Pencils Project is run entirely by volunteers, people passionate about sustainably providing educational resources to those in need. It is our belief that socio-economic disadvantage should not define a child’s opportunity to succeed.

We work directly with recipient organisations, large and small, to make a real difference in the lives of others whilst saving vast quantities of stationery from landfill. We have an amazing team of volunteers but always need more hands. We would love for you to join us! 🫶oue

11/10/2025

These fabulous businesses and locals are providing drop off locations for The Pencils Project donations!
Thank you to all involved ❤️

Please check the opening hours of the business you wish to drop your donations to.

This post will be pinned to the page and will be updated regularly as new drop off locations come on board.
Poppy Cafe & Pantry

Trinos Op Shop

All Aboard Trimming

✏️ Image updated Oct 2025

09/10/2025

🖊️🎨🖌️📖 WE ACCEPT STATIONERY ALL YEAR ROUND!
The incoming flow of stationery never stops, and we appreciate each and every donation!
We have recieved some beautifully prepared donations over the past few months, with pencils sharpened, textas tested and sorted, and used pages removed from exercise books. This cuts down our processing time and helps our volunteers immensely ❤️

March - July Donation Update:
✏️ Approx 8,500 stationery items for Rotary Donations in Kind West Footscray
✏️ A big box of stationery supplies to Northern Health (hospital stroke/rehab programs)
🎨 2 big boxes of art supplies for a local primary school
🎨 2 boxes of stationery supplies for a local secondary school

Special thanks to our volunteer Katrina for delivering stationery to Rotary, to our volunteer Kate for delivering to Bundoora, and the wonderful Tania for coordinating donations to Northern Health 🤩

📢 SPREAD THE WORD!
We have recently received some large donations from businesses that are relocating, closing down or decluttering. If you know of businesses who may be interested in donating stationery to us, please put them in touch with us!
[email protected]

As always we thank you for your ongoing support 🩷

18/06/2025

📣 Calling on our The Pencils Project friends - Nourishing Neighbours urgently needs our support‼️

Nourishing Neighbours supplies food and essentials to families in need. They were promised a new premise by Merri-bek City Council with funded upgrades/extension and repairs to make the new space fit for purpose.

Council has now WITHDRAWN the funding, and NN is facing closure.

Please see the post below for how you can support our friends at Nourishing Neighbours.

We urge Merribek Council to reinstate their original offer to Nourishing Neighbours, to allow this 100% volunteer run organisation to continue to operate at a time when it is needed most. The closure of NN will only place further strain on existing food relief programs, already stretched thin, and put pressure on families in need who will have one less place to turn to.

🙅‍♀️

😭 WE NEED YOUR HELP URGENTLY 😭

❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹SAVE NN FROM CLOSURE❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

✅ SHOW YOUR SUPPORT - LIKE AND SHARE THIS POST

✅ PLEASE REACH OUT TO YOUR LOCAL COUNCILLORS

Last year we were announced as the new Council tenant for the old Pigeon club at Martin Reserve Hadfield. We were so incredibly grateful, as after a long search for a new home this secured our future and our ability to help our most vulnerable.

We applied for the tenancy on the understanding that it included $445,000 towards refurbishments and an extension, however in March 2025 council informed us that the extension would not be provided. The extension is crucial for us to be able to store food and emergency relief for a growing number of people in need in this cost of living crisis.

SO we applied for funding in this council budget, which will be decided upon next MONDAY 23rd JUNE! However at this stage we NOT getting the funding 😭 (link to meeting agenda is in comments)

We have a few more days left to get Councillor support, or else we are facing closure by the end of the year. THIS HAS CONSEQUENCES FOR THE 500+ FAMILIES THAT WE ASSIST WITH WEEKLY FOOD RELIEF EACH YEAR 🍉🥦🌽

Our Council can change this and you can help. PLEASE support us by:

👉🏼Liking and sharing this post

👉🏼 Contacting your local councillor to ask them to support NN

👉🏼 Coming to the special council meeting next Monday 23rd June

🤞🤞🤞This is our LAST HOPE. YOU ARE OUR LAST HOPE! 🤞🤞🤞

We have exhausted all options. We have searched far and wide for a new home. If we are not successful in getting the extension, we will sadly be forced to close our amazing charity which helps so many of our community who are going through the most challenging times of their lives.

Here are the Merri-bek City Council Councillors’ contact details:

👉🏼👉🏼https://www.merri-bek.vic.gov.au/my-council/about-council/councillors/mayors-and-councillors/

Please let them know how important our service is to the community & ask them for their support 💪🏻

10/04/2025

Our tireless volunteers have kicked off 2025 with a huge amount of stationary!

January & February Donation Recipients:
✏️ Approx 7,000 stationery items for Rotary Donations in Kind West Footscray
✏️ Approx 5,000 stationery items for Backpacks 4 VIC Kids
✏️ 36 boxes - over 20,000 stationery items for Big Group Hug
🎨 2 big boxes of art supplies for Jimmy’s Youth Wellbeing Sanctuary
🎨 3 big boxes of art supplies for a local primary school
🎨 2 boxes of stationery and art supplies for Croydon Special Developmental School

Special thanks to our volunteer Tran for delivering stationery to Rotary, and to our volunteer Kate for deliveries to Jimmy’s, Croydon and some of the schools we support 🤩
Every pair of hands makes a difference to what we can achieve 💞

Keep the stationary donations coming - school holidays are a great time to declutter unwanted stationary with the kids! ✏️❤️

16/02/2025

Hello Pencils Community 👋
Welcome to 2025! We took a much needed break from social media in January 🏖️

December Stationery Recipients:
During our School Stationery Drive and Sorting Day in December, our wonderful volunteers prepared stationery for the following organisations -

✏️Over 10,000 stationery items for Big Group Hug
✏️ Over 10,000 stationery items for Backpacks 4 VIC Kids
✏️ Over 50 filled pencil cases for Nourishing Neighbours
✏️ A box of stationery supplies for Glenroy Neighbourhood House
✏️🎨 Many boxes of stationery and art supplies for two secondary schools in need

These organisations each do wonderful work in our communities and we are so pleased to be able to support them. As always, none of this would be possible without our team of amazing volunteers 🙏❤️

Thank you for donating your unwanted stationery to The Pencils Project! 💞

25/12/2024

We wish you all a very safe and Merry Christmas, with family and friends.
Warmest wishes of love and happiness for the year ahead! ✨

24/12/2024

2024 Pencils Project Stationery Drive

From mid-November to mid-December, The Pencils Project coordinated a School Stationery Drive involving primary and secondary schools and our local communities.

Our volunteers collected, sorted, counted and processed an incredible 27,221 pieces of stationery - with at least two thirds of it processed in ONE DAY!

That’s over 27,000 stationery items saved from landfill, and landing in the hands of children who wouldn’t otherwise have access to these essential tools for learning ♻️✏️

Huge thanks to our incredible, powerhouse Sorting Day Volunteers, and the many superstar volunteers processing stationery at home - this would not have happened without you all 💕

Thank you to the following schools, and the amazing teachers and parents who coordinated the stationery drive in their schools -
St. Columba's College, Essendon
Haileybury City middle school
Saint Francis de Sales Primary School
St Peter Chanel Primary School
St Mary’s Primary School Thornbury
Fintona Girls' School
Our Lady of the Nativity School
Pascoe Vale North Primary School
St Christopher’s Primary School
Westbreen Primary School

Our School Stationery Drive was limited to 10 schools this year, but will be an annual event moving forward. We look forward to opening up many more places for school participation in 2025.

18/12/2024

***UPDATE - Friday is sorted 🙌
ONE MORE DRIVER NEEDED - Still need someone to deliver 5 boxes to Les Twentyman tomorrow

DRIVERS NEEDED 🚗🚗
Calling on our Pencils Community & Volunteers!!
We need two people with mid-large vehicles (SUV, Ute, station wagon etc) to help us deliver stationery!

‼️THURSDAY - pick up from Strathmore between 8am-12pm, and deliver to Les Twentyman in Footscray by 3pm tomorrow

✔️FRIDAY - pick up from Strathmore by 8am and deliver to Campbellfield (Backpacks 4 Kids) - multiple vehicles required

PLEASE GET IN TOUCH URGENTLY IF YOU CAN ASSIST ❤️