Harvest festival: what to send in, and what the school actually wants
Tins, packets, toiletries, and what the food bank turns away. What the assembly involves, whether parents can come, and the one line in the letter that tells you the date to worry about.
By The AskBobbie team · 29 September 20262 min read
Some time in the next three weeks, a newsletter will say "harvest festival on Thursday, donations welcome, parents welcome to the assembly at 9:15". The tin is easy. The date is the thing to get right.
What to send
Schools pass donations to a local food bank or a community fridge, and the food bank has a list. In order of usefulness:
- Tins with ring pulls: beans, soup, tomatoes, fish, meat, fruit, veg. Ring pulls matter because not everyone has an opener.
- Dry goods: pasta, rice, cereal, noodles, biscuits.
- Long-life: UHT milk, juice, tea, coffee, sugar.
- Toiletries and household: toothpaste, soap, shampoo, sanitary products, nappies, washing-up liquid. Often the most needed and least given.
Not: fresh food, anything in glass (it breaks in a school hall), anything opened, homemade, or past its date. The Trussell Trust publishes what food banks need most and your local one may have a specific list on its website.
One tin is plenty. The child carries it in on the day, or the week before; the letter says which.
What happens on the day
An assembly, often with a song, sometimes with a class reading. Many schools invite parents, and it is one of the few weekday assemblies you can come to, so it is worth the morning off if you can. It is usually first thing, 9 or 9:15, and over in half an hour. Some schools ask children to wear something autumnal or bright; the letter will say.
The line in the letter
"Please send donations in by Wednesday for the assembly on Thursday." Two dates, and the one that matters is the first. When you put it in the calendar, put the bring-by date, not the assembly date. If you forward the newsletter to Bobbie, it reads "bring a tin by Wednesday" as a thing to bring on Wednesday and "assembly Thursday 9:15, parents welcome" as an event, which is the right two things. See what Bobbie can read.
Further reading
Questions people ask
- When is harvest festival?
- Each school picks its own day, usually between the last week of September and the middle of October. It is in the newsletter and often only there. There is no national date.
- What should I send?
- What a food bank can use: tins with ring pulls, pasta, rice, cereal, UHT milk, long-life juice, tea, coffee, biscuits, tinned fruit and veg, toiletries, nappies. Not fresh food, not glass, not anything opened or past its date.
- Do I have to send anything?
- No. It is voluntary, and the school will say so. One tin is plenty; the point is the assembly and the idea, not the quantity.