Foodbanks across the city have been receiving food collected by people from faith communities who have come together to celebrate harvest festival.

Harvest is traditionally celebrated by churches and is a time when worshippers are asked to bring food to give away to people in need. This year, a new initiative called A Year of Service has encouraged people to come together throughout the year to celebrate one another’s festivals.

This year, several churches have been supported by faith communities to collect food and distribute it – most choosing to give the food to local foodbanks. St Alban’s Church in Highate worked with the local interfaith group to collect food for a foodbank based at Central Mosque. St Paul’s Balsall Heath collaborated with Balsall Heath Forum and two local schools while All Saints Church in Kings Heath worked with ISRA-Feed the poor to gather donations.

The collection organised by All Saints and Isra yielded 235 kgs (almost quarter of a tonne) of groceries. A spokesperson from the Narthex Foodbank in Sparkhill said that the food collected would feed 10 large families for three days and is equivalent to 450 individual meals.Find out more about Narthex Foodbank here.