To think that when your school's demograph is mostly impoverished, guilt tripping mothers about 'Harvest Festival' will not help?

[colditz]

Our school badgers parents for 'Harvest festival' donations, and donates these to an elderly person's sheltered housing scheme.

I have done care work in that very housing scheme, and yes, the residents are vulnerable, and often sickeningly lonely, but they aren't poor.

Probably half the mothers at my sons' school are poor. Should the children of our school really be told to "Go home and ask mummy to send something in for Harvest festival'"?

I know nobody NEEDS to but no child wants to be the one who was sent in empty handed.

wmmc, did they not end up with 100 carrots?

At our school we do harvest slightly differently. The parents are asked to donate cakes and the local elderly people are invited in to an afternoon of tea and cakes and the children do a harvest performance for them. The kids love it and the OAPs look forward to it every year, they absolutely love coming in and seeing the children singing and being served fancy cakes. Any cakes that are left over are donated to the local shelter.

Cakes get handed in to the office by parents, so the children don't ever notice who has brought what and there is no pressure on anyone to bring anything. It's just a lovely gesture to the OAPs in the local area.

Signet thats what our local primary does and it is enjoyed by everyone.

Signet I remember doing that in Infants and it's a lovely idea. I can't think why more schools don't do it.

DD's school has never done harvest festival before, but we celebrate it in church every year. We are asked to donate none perishable goods that need very little preparation and cooking because they always go to hostels and shelters for the homeless. Things like carrots and chutney would not be welcome, but tins of soup, stew, beans etc are.

Signet, I like that idea.

I'll have any unwanted chutney Can't bear ham or cheese sandwiches unless there's some chutney in it Don't care what kind, as long as it's there...

Hmm

Erm I think everyone is missing the point here. No one in this country is poor without choice. There is a support system to let you make a living pick you up when you fall down. Poor is not being able to put food on the table. In a country where there is housing, free money left right and centre, and schemes to ensure children have the basics I think it's almost rude to say you're poor, especially when you probably have a packet of cigarettes, sky tv and a mobile phone. Perhaps "impoverished" parents should go without so their children can save face. Then thank the great Lord that they have a roof over their heads, and education/healthcare is free. No one is poor in this country, they try to live a lifestyle which they cannot afford. Difference.

schools need to stop asking for money full stop.

WMMC - our school is doing the home-made soup thing, but they're asking for home-grown vegetables.
(has visions of people rolling supermarket carrots in the mud so as not to be shown up for not being interested in gardening/being so crap at gardening that they haven't actually managed to grow anything this year except 4 tiny tomatoes which have long since been eaten)
(wonders if this is in fact a kind of village-show-by-stealth)

My son's school has an excellent idea. They asked every child to bring in at least one apple. We have an apple tree in our garden so we are bring in a crate of windfalls. All the apples are going to be made into apple juice and the apple juice sold. The money will be given to the local homeless charity.

Being poor is all relative. Even families on benefits are wealthy when compared to much of the world. Living on income support is luxury compared to life led by some families in developing world.

I freely admit that I have not read all of this thread, but for heavens sake, it is 'harvest festival'.
Send them in with a cabbage / cauliflower, (or even freshly picked blackberries as one person said).
Then surely it gets distributed to the local OAPs.
At least that is the way that I remember it!

Non perishables or Water Aid here too. And for the first time no parents at the service.

Kirk1, I have a feeling that I may know you.

Square pegs and round holes mean anything?

We have to supply "luxury" food products like chocolates, luxury biscuits, etc

I take it this is a private residential home? Could you suggest that they switch to a council run home instead?

Harvest festival was always such a fun time when I was at school, everyone gathering round the display pointing out what they have brought in. Also a chance for my mum to get rid of any old (but still in date) tins out of the cupboard.

I was getting ready to empty the cupboards for my DC but was sent a letter to say they are bypassing food completely and just want the money instead.:(

Not what harvest festival is about IMO

signet's school is the way forward.

I have not read all this thread, but so far I have only seen one post from someone who got one of these boxes of donations, and it seems as though she did not really need it.

I did harvest festival donations at school as a child and it was often very difficult ( I once took in one egg - it was all we could spare).

We really were poor but somehow these donations just disappeared - I never found out where they went. We were taking things in for the 'the poor' but that was in fact us, and we never got anything.

Signet's school sounds like it has a sensitive appraoch.

IMO every school should have their own vegetable patch, big enough for every child to plant a seed. This could be done during the last few weeks of the summer term and then in October all the children could pick the vegetables ready for the harvest festival to be given to the homeless shelters and care homes.

I do think the tradition of harvest festival being about home grown stuff should be kept alive but not everyone even has a garden to be able to do this. If it is done through school then everyone is learning a valuable lesson in growing their own produce and also that it is nice to help less fortunate people in the community. They could also invite the people from these shelters to come and see the harvest assembly where some sort of performance usually takes place.

If there are more schools in the area than care homes and shelters then the produce could be sold at some sort of harvest fayre at the school and the money donated.

Do 'old people' want tins of butter beans and spam anymore?

Harvest festival is a good idea, but this weird, patronising tradition of off-loading the shit in our cupboards on to 'the elderly' is outdated. Guilt tripping people with no money into buying unwanted tins of beans is a silly idea, too. Why not get everyone to pledge to doing something for someone in the community for free, rather than buying more crap?

Faaamily I share your sentiments - couldn't have said it better myself.

The 'elderly' of today have more sophisticated palates than their own grandparents. If they do frugality, it's not out of choice, it's out of necessity.

Rather something which someone has put a bit of time and effort or care into than another jar of Value baked beans that they could afford to buy themselves - at the expense of the fresh fruit and veg, cakes, and yes, even chutney, that they can't.

And I am equally convinced that there is not an elderly person on this planet who would gladly take a can of value beans if they knew a family had to go without to buy it for them.

Fuck the food, I say lets have a collection for muddlepuddle's Daily Mail subscription.

Missed signet's post. I love that idea, may even suggest it to my DC's head teacher! How thoughtful!