Harvest Festival 2024

Our Harvest Festival this year was another example of extreme generosity and loving kindness from our St David’s Community. We were inundated with donations for our local food bank, Living Well.

Traditionally the Harvest Festival is an annual celebration in September or October when the crops are gathered from the field and it’s a time for people to literally and metaphorically ‘take stock’, to reflect and show gratitude for the food that they have. In more recent times St David’s have used this as an opportunity to raise awareness for Living Well Bromley.

Living Well are an organisation based in Penge who help people in need of food, guidance and support within a community setting. They provide many services, all for free, such as a food bank, a clothes bank, hot meals, a free café, a community choir, counselling, mental health support and advise on benefits, debt and housing issues. We were very lucky to have a visit from one of their volunteers, Emily, who came to talk to the children in our Harvest Festival assembly. She explained to the children what a food bank is and gave them some statistics about how the Living Well services have been used in the last year.

In 2023 there were 11,919 food bank visits, 11,956 hot meals served and 685 counselling hours delivered. 46% more adults and 47% more dependants used the foodbank than the previous year and due to a decrease in their overall donations more money had to be spent to purchase food themselves.

That’s why foodbank donation drives, like the one St David’s organised this Harvest, are so valuable and very much needed. We would like to take this opportunity to say a huge THANK YOU to our STD Community. The difference you make is immeasurable.

You can find out more about Living Well by visiting their website: Home :: Living Well, Bromley