Danes Hill Schools pupils celebrated their Harvest Festival on Friday 1 October, all pupils contributed a generous selection of Harvest donations including canned goods, dried foods and toiletries which were donated to their local charity, Cobham Food Bank.
Reception to Year 8 children gathered in The Ark to impress Christiana van Roest, General Manager at Cobham Food Bank, with their singing and poems. It was particularly special for the children to congregate together as a whole school community, considering the limitations in recent months. After the assembly, our pupils from The Charity Committee helped load the Cobham Food Bank van and to take the donations to the warehouse at Brook Willow Farm, Leatherhead. There the donations are weighed and sorted by types and best-before dates. Due to the volume of donations, the van nearly had to make two trips!
Cobham Food Bank is a project founded by local community groups, working together towards stopping hunger in the local area. Since they opened in December 2013 they have provided over 158 tonnes of emergency food. Over 90% of the food distributed by the food bank is donated by the public and demand is only increasing. In 2020 they gave 4,191 individuals a weeks emergency food supplies. 1,763 of that number, approximately 42%, were children.
Rob Andrews, Acting Head at Danes Hill School said:
“There were smiles all round after the Harvest Festival as the children felt good knowing they made a difference to those less fortunate than themselves. It was wonderful to welcome parents back to school, not just to watch the fantastic performances of the children, but also to witness the poignant act of giving back to our local community.
One Year 8 pupil commented when leaving assembly:
“It is great to support Cobham Food Bank, especially as charities have suffered so much in the last year.
