Our care home residents give back to their community with harvest hampers

Our residents have been busy preparing and delivering colourful harvest hampers to give back to their local community.

Residents joined forces with our team members to create beautifully packed baskets filled with fresh seasonal produce and homemade treats. The hampers included apples, plums, squashes, carrots, leeks, courgettes, baby sweetcorn and garlic, alongside warm cookies baked in our home’s kitchen that very morning.

Our residents Dorothy Young, 90, Dorothy Thomazin 92, and Jasminder Lalley, 87, enjoyed packing the baskets, while fellow residents Brian Baverstock, 70, and Antonia Leeming 88, helped to deliver them to the community in person later that day. Our lifestyle team, Jackie Avenell, Aneta Stranc and Sara James, were on hand to help the residents with their community outreach, which was done in collaboration with Guildford Baptist Church.

Brian Baverstock and Dorothy Young have lived in Guildford all their lives and loved giving back to their hometown.

Dorothy said, “I always remember celebrating Harvest and all the flowers and the veg in the baskets too. I enjoyed preparing them for our community especially as we selected people that may not be able to get out as much. I think it was nice for them to be able to have a chat with Brian and Antonia as they were delivering them too.”

“I enjoyed helping with the Harvest deliveries,” Brian said, “I loved doing something for the people in the community and putting my time to good use. It was lovely to see their faces light up when we gave them the baskets.”

Dorothy Thomazin moved to Guildford in the 60s and said, “I remember a baker making a wheatsheaf out of bread for my son’s Harvest celebration. It made me happy to see how artistic we made the baskets look and that they would be used in the community.”

The act of giving meant a lot to our residents and Jasminder said, “I loved knowing that they were going to someone in need in the local community, it made me feel very thankful. I love the way I am looked after so well here and have the company of others.”

Frances Selves, who helps coordinate activities at the church, praised the initiative, saying: “Many older people who are living alone take great delight in receiving a food gift around harvest time. It may encourage them to eat something which is not normally on their shopping list, or indeed give them something that they would not usually treat themselves to. I know that years ago, my own mother really enjoyed receiving a hamper from the local school – it means a lot to people.

“We’re very grateful to the residents and the team at Queen Elizabeth Park for helping others and doing so much for the community.”

The church team visits our home monthly to lead Songs of Praise and Bible readings, and regularly supports residents in attending services.

Our lifestyle lead Jackie Avenell said: “We support residents of all faiths and Guildford Baptist Church has been a big part of our Queen Elizabeth Park family for over 15 years. As a home we are committed to the community, and we had a lot of fun creating these hampers.

“We could see how much it meant to the residents too – a lot of them have grown up in this area or have lived here a long time. They love getting involved in projects that make a difference and as much as it’s about giving back, activities like these give our residents a real sense of purpose and a feeling of accomplishment. They are still telling their families all about it. It’s fantastic that they can make such a difference and this was a wonderful way to celebrate the harvest season while supporting others in Guildford.”

Queen Elizabeth Park Care Home has 77-ensuite bedrooms and offers residential, nursing, dementia and compassionate end-of-life care. Our home has recently been named as a Finalist in the South-East regional Great British Care Awards 2025 for the Care Home Team Award and our dedicated team pride themselves in maintaining strong connections with the community.