But the COVID-19 pandemic has put a stop to many school fundraising activities and put a huge dent in the income of P&Cs.

Caroline Chisholm School P&C president Amanda Caddick said it was difficult before the pandemic to get parents to volunteer their time for community events, but it was virtually impossible to host the normal activities when the virus came along.

"We haven't been able to do a lot of those activities, things like school discos and having volunteers come to athletics, carnivals, the special lunches ... things that we use to fundraise but also to have a bit of a sense of community within the school," Ms Caddick said.

The P&C runs two canteens, one each on the junior and senior campuses, as well as a uniform shop.

The lockdown was harder this time because they didn't qualify for business support. The small, not-for-profit businesses don't make enough money to register for GST and therefore missed out on any government funding.

The committee had to use funds they were saving to purchase a digital sign for the school to pay urgent bills. Their biggest fundraising event, the school fete, was meant to be held on Friday but it too had to be cancelled because of COVID restrictions.

"When you're shut down and you're not making any money, it was difficult. We're in a bit of a tough spot at the moment," Ms Caddick said.

Across Canberra, parent volunteers are facing similar struggles and are trying to convert their usual social and fundraising activities into virtual events.

Craig Cormick was able to organise an online trivia night to celebrate Belconnen High School's 50^th anniversary. At first people groaned at the idea of yet another Zoom-based activity but he convinced people it would be fun, and it was.

"You can actually use zoom for fun, not just the rest of it," Mr Cormick said.

"People had a ball, the feedback has been tremendous."

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At Majura Primary School P&C, the preparation for this year's tomato and plant sale was already started when the latest COVID-19 outbreak hit.

Sarah Bruce said the seeds and soil was ordered in winter and the group of dedicated volunteers needed to think swiftly when the lockdown started in August.

"We had to sew things at home and grow things at home because we couldn't access the school initially. There was a lot of planting and having things in our backyards or in our houses and germinating things that way," she said.

There was a lot riding on the success of the plant sale, considering the spring carnival had been cancelled. The sale brought in more than $10,000 to support the school's Stephanie Alexander kitchen garden program.

Customers were able to collect over 20 varieties of tomatoes and an array of herbs - contactless of course - before Melbourne Cup Day.

As the year draws to an end, P&C committees are searching for ways to do their usual activities to suit the COVID restrictions.

Ms Caddick said usually Caroline Chisholm School would have an end of year celebration in school with musical performance, sausage sizzle and raffle.

"We're hoping to move our raffle sales online so that we can still have that raffle we can still without having to encourage family to go and sell tickets," she said.

"We've been talking to the executives at the school and the school principal is really on board to try and get the community together."

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