Harvest Festival is a traditional British celebration originating in pagan times, now celebrated in churches and schools throughout the country on a Sunday near the harvest moon. Harvest Festival is a celebration of the food grown on the land. It’s traditional to bring food to schools and churches to be distributed to the needy, pray and sing hymns, and, in schools, to use the occasion to learn about the harvest process and farming, and about fruit and vegetables. Many schools and churches now use the Harvest Festival to raise money and awareness for food shortages in developing countries.
Of the 32,113 schools in the UK, Rosebery School in Epsom, Surrey think of it as more than a mere annual festival, instead it’s the special time of year to take responsibility in supporting the local community. It’s also a time of year to give hope to those people who are in crisis and to remind them that they are not forgotten or alone, and we are here to help no matter how difficult the situation is.
In the UK, people use foodbanks for various reasons such as low incomes, debt, homelessness, sickness, domestic abuse, benefit delays and benefit changes. A study of seven food banks across the UK found that in most cases, food bank use is ‘the result of an immediate income crisis’, 1 in 5 of the UK population live below the poverty line.
The number of people who are dependent on food banks is soaring as welfare benefits fail to cover basic living costs, a new study warns. The number of uses of Trussell Trust food banks (the UK’s largest network of food banks) has increased over this period from 41,000 to 1.2 million.
This is why it is so important to help others in need – there are people out there who are living on the mouth of poverty. As of May last year, there are more than 2,000 food banks operating across the UK.
Rosebery School plays an active role in ensuring that their local food bank, the Epsom and Ewell Foodbank, is fully supported. Therefore, between Monday 1st October and Friday 12th October their main aim was to donate as much food and produce as possible to Epsom & Ewell Foodbank. All year groups from Year 7 through to Sixth Form were responsible for bringing in different items of food, for instance Year 9 students brought in chocolate and sweets, washing up liquid, tinned potatoes as well as tinned meat pies and Year 10 students brought in ladies’ deodorant, packet soups as well as hot chocolate. These items were specifically tailored to the needs of the Epsom & Ewell Foodbank.
House Points for the four Houses (Malala, Pankhurst, Curie, and Elizabeth) were also awarded for the most items donated. Form groups also decorated cardboard boxes as creatively as they could in the theme of Harvest for a chance to earn more House Points.
In total, within the space of two weeks, over 600 items were donated to Epsom & Ewell Foodbank which was a phenomenal achievement. This wouldn’t have been possible, however, without the commitment, time and planning of the four House Captains who helped organise this special event.
Mrs Rebecca Pickering, the House Leader, explains why Harvest is celebrated in Rosebery, “I think a lot of the students here are incredibly fortunate. I’ve worked in other schools and other areas where there would have been a sizable proportion of students who had to use things like food banks. And I think at a school like this it’s very easy for girls to forget how lucky they are, so putting a real emphasis on the Harvest Festival reminds them to be fortunate for what they have and to be mindful of helping our community and those around us, and I really want this to be engrained in our community”. On this note, we can’t wait for Harvest Festival 2019!
