On Friday and Saturday, we celebrated the annual Harvest Festival by supporting the Epsom and Ewell Food Bank. It was an exceptionally generous and successful year, with all Houses and the Lower School donating a great number of goods, as seen in the photos.
Mr Jonathan Lees, founder of the local Food Bank, spoke in Chapel on both days. He related moving stories of how the food we collect as a school actually helps in many ways we can’t predict. For example, a woman who was unable to pay her gas bills and in debt was able to use the Food Bank in order to pay back her debt slowly and keep her heating and hot water on over lockdown. Mr Lees also recited a poem about the virtues of ‘softness’ over ‘hardness,’ a metaphor for staying alive to the need all around us and being willing to help.
A thank you goes to Sienna Romero-Cameron (Cr) and Lucy Picken (Wh), Harvest Festival officers, Canon Haviland and the Chapel team, the matrons and HMMs, Facilities and the porters, the Charity Committee, Miss Barrows and the team in the Lower School, and all pupils, staff and parents who so generously donated items to the Food Bank drive.
