Hugely successful Carol concert held at St Barnabas Church

Ealing Choral Society's annual carol concert has raised £11,800 for the Foodbank.

In the presence of the Worshipful the Mayor of Ealing, Councillor Dr. Abdullah Gulaid, the choir, conducted by Dr Jonathan Williams, performed a variety of festive pieces. Christopher Wickenden of Haven Funeral Services (sponsor of the concert programme), Pound ECS Associate and EFB Referral Partner Stephen Pound, and a number of Ealing Foodbank representatives were among those giving seasonal readings, and all those present lent their voices to some much loved carols.

Foodbank volunteers

Ealing Foodbank was founded in 2013 and since then has provided emergency food packages to over 40,000 local residents including 15,000 children. Since April this year alone they have fed over 9,000 people, while receiving in excess of 86 tonnes of food and toiletries from the local community.

The Foodbank works with professional agencies to identify people and families in crisis who they can help, using a voucher-based system. They have over 280 volunteers collecting, sorting and storing non-perishable in-date tinned and packet foods before redistributing it to those in crisis at their 6 client centres across the Borough. They also provide clients with signposting to other agencies who may be able to help with the problems underlying a person’s food poverty.

The number of people in food crisis in Ealing is continuing to rise – demand for emergency food packages doubled last year and we expect a further rise of over twenty per cent by March 2020.

Janet Fletcher, Manager of Ealing Foodbank, said: “As a local charity we are truly honoured that Ealing Choral Society have chosen to support us this year with their annual concert. The choir sang beautifully and everyone who came to St Barnabas left full of festive cheer and goodwill. Year round we are reliant on the generosity of local people through their food gifts and today we are so grateful to the concert-goers for their donations towards the work we do. This money will help us cover the costs of the logistics of dealing with the growing numbers of local people in food crisis.”

ECS Chairman Sue Clark said “We are thrilled that our carol concert has raised such a magnificent sum of money to support the valuable work of Ealing Foodbank for those in need in Ealing. We are also delighted to see the power of music-making reaching out into our community, with our wonderful audience adding their own voices to the community carols.”

If you would like to know more about how the Foodbank works and how you can help with food or financial donations - their website has the details.

17 December 2019