RICE, some sardines, and a few lentils and beans is all that a group of generous Marist College students will survive on for five tough days this June.

The boys are taking on the “ration challenge” where from June 14 they’ll only eat what a Syrian refugee does to raise money and awareness for those displaced by conflict or disaster.

“We want to walk in their shoes, see what they feel like then relate that into how we help them,” said year 10 student Myles Goddard.

“If we experience an idea of what struggles they face that allows us to have more of a purpose fighting for the cause.”

The boys are doing the challenge as part of the school’s Justice and Solidarity Program, a co-curricular group they all voluntarily put their hands up for.

Each student will be provided with a small emergency rations box from Act for Peace, an international charity organisation that started the challenge in 2014.

Friends, family and the community can sponsor the participants and the money raised goes towards providing emergency food (the same that the boys are eating) to refugees, as well as healthcare and support to the ones hit hardest by COVID-19.

Maths and religion teacher Tom Guinane discovered the ration challenge through his daughter and said he was “extremely proud” to see some of his students taking it on as well.

“I’m proud that they are aware of and care about other people in less fortunate circumstances,” said Mr Guinane.

“I’m happy for them, happy that they have opportunities to learn like this.”

The challenge will play out over the course of a normal school week, which has many of the boys wondering how they’re going to go with their sports training after school.

They also all agree that it’ll certainly make for an interesting conversation piece at recess and lunch.

Among the things the boys say they’re going to miss the most is KFC, however they will be able to work towards extra food rations by spreading the word. If they raise $125 they’ll be able to add some salt to their food, raise $500 and they’ll get to add 170 grams of a vegetable, $1000 and they’ll get a can of tomatoes.

“As teenagers we see a lot of these big, systemic problems and it’s easy to think I’m just a single person or we’re just a handful of boys at a school, what can we do?” said year 11 student Michael Keating.

“But we have to do something, and taking this first step puts us on the right track. It can make us better leaders in the future because we’ve proven that we can start tackling it now and as we grow up our ability to tackle these problems will also grow with us.”

The boys’ efforts have not gone unnoticed. Already they’ve seen donations to the cause pouring in with over $1000 raised.

Chief fundraiser among them is Louis Ryan, a year seven student who himself has already raised more than $600.

Nationally, the initiative has pulled together about a quarter of a million dollars, enough to feed more than 800 refugees for an entire year.

The Marist boys aren’t heading into the challenge too nervous either, saying they’ve been excited by the support that’s been thrown behind them.

“We all have a sense of wanting to be able to help and wanting to be able to do something but it’s a matter of putting that into action,” said Myles.

“I think that in doing this you’re connecting and you’re understanding how other cultures live and what they go through and I think that should lead you to a future where you’re more aware.

“We want to make a difference and with this we feel like we are.”

To donate visit schools.rationchallenge.org.au