Have your family given something to a harvest festival this year? Perhaps at your church or at your children’s school?

I’m sure that most people have some connection with knowing that the harvest table is generally packed away and shared with people in the community who need it the most.

But who are those people who need it most? And where do the harvest festival donations really go to?

I know that churches and schools take the time to find out where their donations would be most needed. We receive some things at the charity I work for, for the young people living in our accommodation project. They’re all aged around their late teens, some of them aren’t great cooks and we spend lots of time helping them to budget carefully and shop frugally.

When harvest festival time comes around, we’re always in that lovely place of having strangers thinking of us. We have things given from two harvest festivals; one our local Methodist church and the other a primary school a couple of miles away. They seem to know that tins and packets are often simplest for our young people to use. But there’s always a good few bits of fresh home grown veg and the chance for some fun with attempts at new cooking skills and unfamiliar tastes.

It’s also a chance to eat well and have a few treats too.

For young people who are almost always really short of money, those things are really special.

So thank you for whatever you gave to harvest festival this year.

Someone somewhere may well be tucking into something special today and smiling because of you.