In Churches and schools up and down the country you will find people at this time of year celebrating Harvest.  For the first time last year Bishop Rawstorne celebrated Harvest as a school.  This year will be the same; we will have worship in tutor groups focused on Harvest the week beginning Monday 13 October 2014, but we have specifically set aside Wednesday 15 October as our Harvest Festival.  With an eye to meeting the needs of people in our area we have decided to support a local foodbank, ‘Storehouse’, in Chorley run by Living Waters Church in partnership with other organisations and businesses.  On this day there will also be an optional communion service to which all members of the school community are invited to attend during lunchtime.

 

So what is a foodbank? A centre which provides emergency food for people in crisis and need.

 

How does it work? People in need are referred to them through a range of avenues.  People collect a food parcel from LivingWaters Church and are also offered the opportunity for a hot drink and lunch, as well as help and signposting to other services they may require.

 

Who is it for? They are working to alleviate poverty and feed people in crisis with no financial safety net within Chorley Borough.  This may including losing their job, experiencing relationship breakdown, benefit delay, illness, bereavement etc.

 

So what are we hoping to do?  We are as usual supporting Emmaus at Christmas as in recent years, by collecting non-perishable items we are also offering school support in the same way to ‘Storehouse’ who provide food parcels for more people who are in need of them.  The number of people being referred to them is ever increasing and therefore any additional donations are very much appreciated.  Please see on the reverse of this letter a list of items that Storehouse has asked us to provide. If you could contribute an item or two it would be a huge help to the Storehouse in providing a service that unfortunately growing numbers of people have had to come to rely on to feed their themselves and their families.

 

Thank you in advance for your support of our Harvest Festival and in turn the Storehouse and their mission.

 

God bless

 

 

 

Ben Green

Youth Worker Chaplain

The kinds of items the Storehouse have asked us to recommend are:

 

 

Tinned meat

Tinned fruit

Fruit cordinal

Long life milk

Tea/coffee

Cereal

Cooking sauces

Packet Mash

Rice

Rice Pudding

Spaghetti

Pasta – this is a particularly popular item due to its easy cooking.

Soup

Beans

Jam

Biscuits

Toiletries

Nappies

Cleaning Products

 

Click here to download original letter