Next Year

It's cold, wet and dark outside so my thoughts have turned to next summer. Time to start finding homes for collections in 2008. The challenge is to have a good geographic spread of festivals and also lots of storage at key moments in the season. Looking ahead I would like to hope that food can be collected at events from June to September.

Who knows, by next year destitution may be outlawed but since I haven't noticed a rush of Party Conference pledges to end it I'll start planning.

2007

With Festival Harvest's year coming to an end it's good to reflect on what has been achieved through the generorisity of festival goers. All together we estimate about £10,000 of food and sleeping bags have been rehomed to destitute people and others in need. We have been able to support projects in Bristol, Manchester, Exeter, Gloucester, Wolverhampton, and Birmingham. In addition we have distributed many Living Ghosts leaflets and we urge anyone who has not done so already to check out this campaign. We need drivers, sorters and storage for next year so do get in touch if you can offer any of those. Thank you to every one who droped off stuff at any of our collections. If you have a festival you would like us to be part of next year we are hoping to add a further 3 in 2008, let us know. festivalharvest@hotmail.co.uk

treats, essentials and a warm bed

Traders came up trumps with donations as diverse as cookies, swede and red cabbage and sleeping bags. We even came away with 2 teapots which haven been given to a new community cafe. 'Nuts' donated a huge amount, delivering there donation by a series of trolley runs. Tangerine Fields, once again, gave us their unwanted sleeping bags. Thank you to all traders and festival partners.

ups and downs

Greenbelt was a rewarding experience and the generosity of traders in particular continues to move and delight me. We suffered a bit of petty theft including one of our banners but happily it was later found and returned to one of our number by a steward.

The venue, a huge marquee was equipped with tables and that meant that individuals could help us by sorting their food as they droppped it off with us. The value of the donations will be posted later but the 3 vans that we had were put to good use. Thanks to campers and traders alike.

Greenbelt volunteers

The first group outing for our corporate wear was well received. Thanks to the pre booked Greenbelt squad, Tracy, Phil, Alison, Dave, Kirsten, Adele and family and Hannah plus Andy from Devon and all the CAP folk who appeared on the day.

Bristol and Exeter

Food from Soul Survivor B was delivered to Refugee Action, and Holding Human Rights and Refugees in Mind who support destitute asylum seekers in Bristol. Catering supplies went to Kebele Cafe recomended by refugee charities because of the support they offer those experiencing destitution alongside other residents of Bristol. Refugee Support Group in Exeter met us at the showground and took a good supply of goods to help the people they support. The photo shows Refugee Action unloading with FH's wheelbarrow.

Unexpected volunteers

We are slowly starting to develop a list of volunteers for next year but over the course of the summer we've been hugely grateful for impromptu offers of help. A big thanks to Eternity Youth Church at Soul Survivor B for interupting their rest in the sunshine.

Donations from Shepton Mallet

3 festivals in 11 days has presented a few challenges but has reaped a huge reward for many charites. I'm slowly gathering my thoughts to create this summary. Over three events, one in Cheshire and two in Shepton Mallet, Soul Survivor delegates contributed over £5000 worth of food to 6 projects supporting destitute asylum seekers.

There were very limited numbers of people on hand to help sort and deliver so it was a pretty grueling process but well worth it.

Meringues

Soul Survivor B 120!

Typed in haste in a lovely Bristol cafe, happily wearied by loading another van full of food. Hope the guys from Exeter got back safe and I'm just grateful for a post sort break after the drop off at Holding Human Rights and Refugee in Mind in Bristol. Photo's to follow next week.

Corporate identity

The new Festival Harvest corporate wear has arrived. What better inducement to volunteer.

Mentioned in Dispatches

If you have found us through the Greenbelt Dispatches or have simply strayed into our blog and are off to Greenbelt here is a little more detail for this weekend. G Source, the new home for the collection is a big venue but winds permitting head for the lovely gazebo from 4.30pm Monday until Tuesday morning. After that drop food in G Source itself. There will be big banners clearly marking which entrance to use.

We desperately need help to sort food and if you are on the Greenbelt mailing list you will have had a request to contact us. Please follow the link or, if after the start of the festival, drop by the gazebo at around 4pm on Monday. We are looking for one hour of your time to volunteer on behalf of recipient charities.

If you are luxuriating in a Tangerine Fields sleeping bag you can add to your inner calm by the knowledge that once the weekend is over the sleeping bag will be given to one of our many partner charities.

Preparations

As the nice man in our local Sainsbury's handed over 6 boxes he asked, 'is this too many'? 58 banana boxes later, and a hurried explaination, 'no we aren't moving house' the garage is piled high with neatly stacked crates. We have upgraded to a bigger van. At moments like this I find myself musing on how daft we will feel if come the morning after each event we are left staring at a lone pot noodle.

Coventry Refugee Centre

It might have taken 4 hours to sort and pack but thanks to willing hands and a warm welcome in Coventry we unloaded a whole van in under 15 minutes. Enjoy.

3rd Collection. Gathered thoughts.

Soul Survivor A was our third collection this year with food already gathered in Cheshire and sleeping bags from Tangerine Fields at the Big Chill. The Festival Harvest gazebo got it's first outing and, oh gosh, it's orange. So much so that the camera broke on my first attempt to photograph it. We had come down from the midlands and personal organisation rather let us down, forgetting to eat, getting lost en route to the B and B, not bringing our cheque book and then leaving with the keys. Couple this with arriving late and leaving early (and then returning to pay) means the landlady at the Willow Tree Court Bed and Breakfast deserves hearty thanks for her welcome and patience. The keys are in the post!

The night stewards had helpfully moved the food, by then a huge amount, from under the gazebo and into an adjacent marquee. This came as a bit of a surprise to the venue manager when she arrived the next morning. Two folk from Bristol who had arrived at the gazebo before us must have wondered why they had driven all that way for one bag and we were wondering just what kind of thief would make off with a damp pile of pot noodles.

Happily we left with a full transit van and car for projects in Bristol and Coventry. We were reminded by our aching limbs that volunteers to sort and move food need to be a priority!

Sweet

One of the nice things about the collections is that we receive a lot of treat items which add variety to the usual food parcel staples. Much of these are the usual camping items but for some reason every year we are donated at least one meringue nest. Not obvious camping food. Soul Survivor A generated 60. We hope to keep a running tally in a tribute to campers with more refined tastes and their generosity. Phil models part of this years haul.

August Collections

After a fraught few days things have fallen into place and the recipients of this years' festivals are arranged. For the interested these should include, Boaz Trust in Manchester and GARAS in Gloucester, Refugee Action Bristol, The Harbour Project in Swindon, Refugee Support Group in Exeter, Coventry Refugee Centre, All Nations Church in Wolverhampton, Holding Human Rights and Refugees in Mind in Bristol plus various others.

2 stumbling blocks are the lack of storage and transport problems. Small projects are by nature lacking in vast amounts of space and labour. Skilled advice volunteers might not be best used by moving food around the country. That's why a priority for the autumn has to be to find folk who collect, sort and deliver as well as places who could offer storage. You don't need to know anything about asylum or destitution to help out. It would make a good small group activity for a trade union, faith group, Women's Institute, Rotary Club etc. For those who enjoy nosing into other people's shopping bags it's great fun seeing just what people bring away to eat when camping!

The volunteer side of it is straight forward and it could be a nice one off summer task. Fulfilling, fun and very time limited. Storage needs to be handy for a local project, dry and vermin free. Church halls, unused garages all work. They might seem like insignificant things but we need them for this to be less of a headache for the charities offering support.

First Crop

Part of the fun, and a lot of work goes in to sorting donated items. Think what hours of fun could be yours sorting canned veg from custard, rice from porridge. It all helps the charities at the other end. Spare us an hour at a festival and you could be as happy as these guys sorting the first collection of 2007 with The Boaz Trust.

an odd thing in exeter

3 events are round the corner 2 in the Devon area and one in Gloucestershire. Logistics are proving fun. We never have any idea how much we will get and for new partners that's hard to understand. So on Saturday, Thursday and Tuesday some food, hopefully a lot, will need to make it's way from Devon and Cheltenham to places as diverse as Exeter, Swindon, Manchester, Gloucester, Bristol, Wolverhampton, Coventry, the list goes on. For some reason the fact that people are living destitutute in Exeter seems faintly surreal. Not what I, as a northerner, expect from a holiday destination. Destitution feels like it should be a big city wound. There's no logic to my feelings, but somehow I feel if the politicians knew people were destitute near the UK's beautiful south west coatline it should make a difference. It know it won't.

Gazebos are good to go!

For the last 2 years Festival Harvest has all been a dream with a vague bit of structured thought behind it. Well the dream is now reality, thanks to the nice people at Allen Lane Foundation. The peaceful dream has now welcomed the dawnlight and thus far it hasn't proved too chilly, although it is a lot less peaceful. Left over food from music festivals united with people who find themselves destitute. All through the good auspices of various existing projects. Hopefully this blog will be a way for people to keep track of what we do and where we will be.

We are a matchmaking group putting festivals, destitution projects and people prepared to sort and transport food together in a way that hopefully helps everyone. The plan was to continue our collection at the Greenbelt Festival, last year amounting to £6500 worth and add in two more in 2008. Slight hiccup there already. Well, everyone said it was a good idea and what fun it would be. The situation for destitute asylum seekers gets no better, so when offered a presence in one way or another at 6 festivals this year the word no didn't occur.

The FH gazebo is still a glint in the eye of whatever gives birth to baby gazebos and so, trustee LC, loaned her very own barbeque palace to the cause. On a windswept evening we set up on the Cheshire plain and after much wrestling with guy ropes and flapping canvas beat a hasty retreat. Next morning £700 worth of food had gathered under it's eaves, dropped off by happy campers. Thank you!

Thank you also to Tangerine Fields, who the week before passed on their Big Chill sleeping bags to projects in Birmingham. 3 more food collections to go this year, and hopefully we can rehome a load more sleeping bags.