Soup day helps Harvest appeal

Churchgoers from Our Lady and St Edwards parish held their annual Harvest soup lunch and donated the proceeds to Catholic aid agency CAFOD’s Harvest appeal.

The annual fundraising campaign is this year focused on families in the South American country of Bolivia whose crops and livelihoods have been impacted by an increase of extreme weather.

John Woods, local parishioner and CAFOD representative, said: “We held our annual Harvest Day soup lunch to raise money and to get hands on to support CAFOD.

“It was a wonderful team effort. Volunteers worked hard to prepare the soup and arrange the hall. Parishioners enjoyed the homemade soup. By the end of lunch, the soup was all gone”

CAFOD is working with the communities on the Bolivian Altiplano, where nearly 60 per cent of the rural population are living below the poverty line.

The changing climate has caused unpredictable rains and frequent hailstorms, which are destroying the crops which the communities rely on.

The charity’s partners are working to provide greenhouses to protect crops and train communities with new farming techniques to help them to grow more food.

Preston’s donation will enable CAFOD’s partners to continue working with communities like those in Bolivia.

CAFOD’s representative in Preston, Patrick Gardner, said: “I have the utmost respect for all the hard work that goes into planning the soup lunch, there’s a real ‘all hands on deck’ approach.”

“You get a buzz as soon as you walk into the parish centre. You can really tell that the parish loves coming together at Fast Days. There’s a joy on people’s faces.

“Harvest fast days are great way of bringing people together and raising an incredible amount of money to help others, so we’d like to say a huge thanks to the parishioners for their generosity.”

Donate to the Harvest Appeal at: cafod.org.uk/harvest