Recently,
St James Park Residents, families and Colleagues enjoyed a fabulous Harvest Festival in the home with a special service and collection for the local charity.
In preparation for Harvest, people at the home made lots of Autumn themed decorations and gathered leaves, berries and cones to put around them. There was also a plentiful supply of fruits, vegetables, and packets of goods, which were displayed on the home’s Harvest Table.
The special Harvest service was taken by Reverend Janice Moore, who visited the 31-bed residential and nursing care home and talked about how lucky we are to have such a bountiful supply of fruits and vegetables all around us.
Reverend Janice told the story of a 150-year-old dish that had been used to hold the bread for every Harvest Festival in her family and had been passed down the generations. Residents including Joan, Barry, Evelyn, Phyllis, Mona, Phil, Simon, Sheila, Mike, Gwen, Caryn and Marjorie all loved hearing the story, and Phil shared his own experience with the Harvest at his own church in the years gone by.
There was also a big thank you expressed to the home’s Chef, Antony, who made a beautiful lattice bread for the table centre.
Families of the Residents also brought in donations and some Colleagues brought apples and biscuits along to the celebration.
After a very uplifting service with traditional Harvest hymns, which were sang by Residents, all the produce was then donated to the local charity, Beacon Church. The people at the church will turn all the donations into meals in their community soup kitchen for the homeless and those struggling with the cost of living.
Mihaela Barbulescu, Home Manager, commented, “Harvest Festival celebrates the hard work that our farmers do to provide food to the whole nation! I’m happy to see our Residents sang at the top of their voice to ‘We Plough the Fields and Scatter’ and ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’. It was a brilliant day!”