• 12 December 2022

Ealing Choral Society raises over £5500 for Ealing Foodbank

Father Justin Dodd, Jane Macleod, Christopher Wickenden, Bri L'Hostis, Stephen Pound, John Sergeant, Cynthia Haliburn and Peter Asprey following the concert.

Ealing Choral Society raises over £5,500 for Ealing Foodbank

The festive annual Christmas Carol Concert held on Saturday 10th December, raised over £5,500 for the local charity!

In the presence of the Worshipful the Mayor of Ealing, Councillor Mohinder Midha, the choir, one of London’s very best, conducted by Peter Asprey, performed a variety of festive pieces to their usual very high standard. Christopher Wickenden of Haven Funeral Services (sponsor of the concert programme), Stephen Pound the former MP for Ealing North, broadcaster John Sergeant 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 Volunteers pose before the concert

 

Since 2013, Ealing Foodbank has served more than 125,000 local people who have been referred to one of their 7 locations around the borough. Their year was 2020-2021, during which they distributed 304 tonnes of food and other essentials. The Foodbank is on track to surpass that record in 2022-23 by over 10 percent, making it the busiest ever.

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 seven 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 is expected to further rise in the coming months due to the mounting pressures of the cost of living crisis and the general economic malaise.

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.

If you would like to make a donation to the Foodbank, please visit the CAF donation page set up for the concert.