Liphook Day Centre receives abundance of donations from Highfield and Brookham Schools

For many years, Highfield and Brookham Schools have supported The Liphook Day Centre for the elderly through their annual Sunday Harvest Festival Service. The produce, generously donated by parents at Harvest Festival, has always been donated to the centre along with the proceeds of the collection taken at the service which usually runs to several hundred pounds.

Sadly, given the current circumstances, Highfield and Brookham were unable to hold this year’s Harvest Festival Service, which would normally have been held last Sunday. However, Covid-19 could not stop them from organising their usual collection of produce. The Liphook Day Centre is entirely self-funded, so contribution of produce is always most gratefully received and used for many weeks to help provide hot meals for the elderly who use the Centre. It is a sad fact that for many who use the Centre, the hot meals they enjoy there are their only hot meals of the week.

Phillip Evitt, Headmaster at Highfield School said; “The Centre relies entirely on donations in order to help support, provide companionship and feed so many in this area who would otherwise miss out on hot meals and company. It is distressing that in an area as outwardly affluent as ours this should be necessary. It provides a pertinent reminder of our duty as schools to encourage our children to ‘look out’ and to consider how they might best help others less fortunate.”

Phillip Evitt, Headmaster at Highfield School and his wife Jo safely delivered the produce to The Liphook Day centre this week after it had been carefully stored in the school chapel for 72 hours. This year’s produce included the traditional tinned and dried food as well as copious amounts of homegrown fruit and vegetables.

The team at Liphook Day Centre said; "We received all the harvest goods and we are extremely grateful for your kindness and generosity. We have made batches of fresh soup, stocked up our treat cupboard, planned a fantastic menu with the goods and put some treats away for our clients’ Christmas hampers – thank you!”

To find out more about Highfield and Brookham Schools and their ethos of giving back visit highfieldandbrookham.co.uk.