Thanks to another very well-attended production on Saturday 14^th December 2019, Ealing Choral Society’s annual carol concert has raised an amazing £11,800 for charity!

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), Stephen Pound (ECS Associate and EFB Referral Partner), 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.

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.

Sadly, 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 https://ealing.foodbank.org.uk has all the details. And you can follow their community involvement on Facebook, Twitter (@EalingFoodbank) and Instagram.

 

From left: ECS Associate and EFB Referral Partner Stephen Pound, ECS Chairman Sue Clark, Sponsor Christopher Wickenden, ECS Music Director Jonathan Williams, The Worshipful the Mayor of Ealing Councillor Dr Abdullah Gulaid, EFB representative Lemia Nkwela, EFB Manager Janet Fletcher, EFB representative Christina Ferguson-Eziashi, ECS Treasurer Cynthia Haliburn.