Leithfield School Te Kura o Kowai, a school north of Christchurch, has been selling 250g blocks of butter for $4.
It's a bargain compared to some supermarkets where butter blocks are priced at over $10 for 500g, depending on the brand.
Recent Stats NZ data showed food prices were rising at their fastest rate in more than a year, with butter prices up 65%. Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell said he understands consumers' frustration about the cost, but the co-op giant has to deliver for farmers and prices were driven by global demand.
Principal Rob Cavanagh told RNZ's Checkpoint programme today the interest in butter had been overwhelming over the past few weeks.
"Our fundraising team and thought it was going to be a bit of a small earner, maybe bring in a few a few dollars and sell a few 100 blocks of butter.
"But we got that one completely wrong and it's been super popular."
He said it started after a parent in the school's fundraising team came across the Westland dairy fundraising page.
"On there was just an opportunity to sell some butter and they thought, hey, let's give it a go and hopefully we'll sell a few blocks and bring in a little bit of money."
The school has sold more than 10,000 blocks.
"It's turned into what we thought would be a minor operation into a rather large-scale logistical operation."
Interest has come from as far as Hawke's Bay and the Bay of Plenty, from comments on their Facebook page.
"[It's] well and truly out of the reach of our small team of volunteers in terms of the distribution here from school. It is a local thing for us, and we're pleased to know that there are lots of people in our local area that are taking up the opportunity and able to give a bit back to the school at the same time."
From each block of butter sold, the school makes $1. The funds go into different aspects of the school, including subsidising some start of the year costs for families, Cavanagh said.
"We're bringing our stationery costs right down at the start of the year [and] we're able to help with the shortfall in costs for school camps. All of our camps happen in term 1 and we always have a bit of a shortfall when we come to taking the money from donations that come in and the board's operation funding.
"We're purchasing new Kapa Haka uniforms for our senior Kapa Haka group. We're sending some of our senior students on leadership opportunities and we're buying some resources for our new writing programme we're using this year as well."
The school is selling the butter until 5pm on Friday.
