Gather together this Harvest with your parish
Make CAFOD’s Fast Day a reason to get your parish community together this autumn. Build community and show love for our global family.
Get social and raise money for CAFOD. See if you can get all the generations in your parish involved, especially young people!
Many of our amazing volunteers have organised parish events to help our work, and you can also get together with your parish community to fundraise for CAFOD in a fun and enjoyable way.
Moira, has been supporting CAFOD since 2005 by organising Parish Breakfasts and Soup Lunches at Fast Days in February and October. Her initial idea was a ‘Rich Man Poor Man’ parish meal, to emphasise the contrast between the living standards in the world. Soon afterwards, the event became her parish’s regular Breakfast after Sunday Mass and a Soup Lunch on Fridays.
Moira’s event has been popular in her parish, as she says herself: “People are supportive and happy to be a part of a community event that is supporting CAFOD, it is a great thing, and we feel a great sense of unity with our brothers and sisters across the world”.
Nisha, has used her excellent cooking skills to fundraise for CAFOD’s work in her parish. As she says, she loves the way cooking brings people together: “Cooking is how I first got involved with CAFOD! It was when I heard about the world food crisis, that’s when we decided to do an Indian meal for everyone in our parish to raise funds.”
Aside from a great social event, Nisha found the event spiritually rewarding: “I felt that with CAFOD we were helping others in Jesus’ name – I could really feel that. It might be just a little help, but it gives you lots of happiness and satisfaction inside.”
You can read more about Nisha’s experience (and try to cook her fantastic tuna cutlets!) by clicking on the link to her CAFOD blog post.
Cooking and group meals are not the only ideas you can use for your Gather Together event in your community.
Alison, organised a car wash in her parish. “The young people greeted those who arrived in their cars one Sunday, asking them if they wanted them washed and put cards on the cars that wanted washing. Then those cars were washed during the mass. The kids came in groups so they didn’t have to wash cars all morning. The challenge here was having an accessible tap and very long hose!”
You may also consider:
- Sports activity or family games
- Musical and dance activities
- Handmade gift sale
- Arts and crafts workshops
Our A-Z of fundraising ideas provides a comprehensive list of events you can organise for your parish community, suitable for all ages and skills.
We hope you will have a wonderful time this autumn as you Gather Together!