Until Saturday: Munich Foundation Collects School Cone Donations for Needy Children
In Munich, the summer holidays are coming to an end in mid-September, and school is about to start again. Thousands of boys and girls in Munich will have their first day of school on September 15, 2026. And what belongs to a first-grader like the school bell to recess? A well and lovingly filled school cone or a school bag with pens, notebooks, pencil cases, and a paintbox. However, school supplies are expensive, and not every family is financially able to bear all these costs.
The ‘Bunte Münchner Kindl’ Project: Ensuring Equal Opportunities Since 2016
The ‘Bunte Münchner Kindl’ project of the ‘Wir helfen München’ foundation ensures that all schoolchildren are well-equipped to attend classes. Since the 2016/17 school year, the project has annually helped up to 2,000 needy children with high-quality school materials to promote equal opportunities in school. The patron of the donation campaign is Petra Reiter, the wife of Munich’s former Lord Mayor Dieter Reiter.
“Last year, we donated 300 school cones, 80 of which were handed in here at the Hofbräuhaus alone,” Petra Reiter proudly states. The ‘Bunte Münchner Kindl’ project is not only active at the beginning of the school year but throughout the entire year. It supports not only first-graders but also students up to their Abitur year. Students are provided with notebooks, backpacks, pens, sharpeners, blocks, compasses, and many other utensils needed in everyday school life.
Avoiding Exclusion and Fostering Integration
However, financial reasons are not always the cause of a child starting school without a school cone; cultural reasons also play a role. Petra Reiter tells of a Greek first-grader who sat at his desk with two bouquets of flowers but no school cone. “The parents simply didn’t know the German tradition of the school cone,” says the patron. On that day, Petra Reiter’s doorbell rang, and she spontaneously organized for a volunteer to deliver a school cone by bicycle so that the little Greek boy didn’t have to start his first day of school empty-handed.
“Proper school material is the cornerstone for a successful school career. With this, we want to avoid exclusion, promote integration, and enable educational justice from the first to the last day of school. We help children whose parents cannot or can barely afford basic school equipment, regardless of their social status, origin, or gender,” says Reiter.
And the gifted students are extremely grateful and show this with self-written and self-painted letters, some of which were on display at the start of the donation campaign at the Hofbräuhaus.
Why This Campaign is So Crucial
“I ask you, what does it do to a small child when they come to school on the first day and all the other children have school cones and materials they can work well with, and they themselves have nothing? For this reason, this campaign is incredibly important because it actively tackles and improves educational opportunities,” praises Dr. Michael Hoderlein the donation campaign at the Hofbräuhaus. He himself is the headmaster of the primary school in Berg am Laim, which has repeatedly been supported with school cones and school materials in the past.
How You Can Help: Donate School Cones and Supplies
Since the foundation receives no government funding, it relies on donations for its campaigns. This year, too, for the “School Cones for All!” campaign, filled school cones or school bags are being collected for needy children at the start of school.
Everyone can help. Filled school cones or simply their contents (e.g., colored pencils, playdough or wax crayons, small books, notebooks, card games, hair clips, or non-melting sweets) can be dropped off from Monday, September 7, to Saturday, September 12, 2026, each day from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Hofbräuhaus reservation office at Platzl 9 (1st floor).
Monetary Donations Also Welcome
Monetary donations are also possible; these are used to organize much-needed school materials, which are then packed into school cones or school bags by volunteers. Not only first-graders are supported; needy children in higher grades also receive necessary school materials. Here, too, in-kind donations in the form of notebooks, paintboxes, school bags, pens, pencil cases, and/or workbooks are gladly accepted.
The foundation receives information about what students need for class from numerous teachers. These teachers can contact the “Bunte Münchner Kindl” project if they know of a child who does not yet have a school cone.
Key Information for Donors:
- Drop-off location: Hofbräuhaus reservation office, Platzl 9 (1st floor)
- Drop-off times: Monday, September 7, to Saturday, September 12, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- What to donate: Filled school cones or individual items like colored pencils, playdough, small books, notebooks, card games, hair clips, non-melting sweets.
- Monetary donations: Account details below.
Contact and Further Information:
Further information about the school cone donation campaign can be found online at https://bunte-muenchner-kindl.de. Interested volunteers for packing and delivering school cones can contact [email protected].
Donation Account: Bunte Münchner Kindl, Stadtsparkasse München, IBAN: DE59 7015 0000 0000 5734 44
