The joyful sounds of the Harvest hymn filled the hall as the children celebrated this year’s charitable giving at St John’s in our Byron House special service. The food donations came flooding in and after the services the goods were delivered to the Cambridge Food Bank, a local charity, part of Newmarket Open Door. The charity redistributes donated foods and household products to disadvantaged people and operates a Shop ‘n’ Share scheme with donation boxes at Milton Tesco and Daily Bread in Cambridge. The monetary donations and the collection went to Jimmy’s Night Shelter, a Cambridge-based charity that does wonderful work supporting, rehousing and educating homeless people.
Staff at the Cambridge Food Bank were delighted with the quantity and range of the items they collected from both Senior House and Byron House. The generosity of St John’s families was, once again, impressive and the gifts made a wonderful display both around the altar in the Senior House Chapel and on the stage in the Byron House Hall.
Dr Maxwell, who lead the Byron House Harvest Assembly, explained, “Harvest has always been a time when people thank God for giving them enough to eat. At St John's, we do this by thinking especially during this period of local people who find it difficult to provide enough food for their families and so go to the Cambridge Food Bank for help. As always, we were absolutely delighted with the very generous response to our appeal. The Food Bank had delivered 25 crates to the school the previous day and, between them, Senior House and Byron House managed to fill them all to overflowing with packets and tins. I am extremely grateful to everyone who contributed. It is wonderful to think we shall have been able to help so many less fortunate families.”
The ever popular Eco Harvest Competition ensured trestle tables were overflowing in abundance of homegrown delights. Tables were covered with a wide array of fruits and vegetables, baked goods as well as stunning photographs and carefully constructed models. Miss Pipe and Dr Maxwell had the hard task of tasting some of the delicious homemade jams and fairy cakes on offer. Other categories included the most orange carrot, best pressed flower picture, best seed tray garden, and best Mr Potato Head, amongst a wealth of others.
