Brighten Up Harvest Assembly 2016
Themes: Harvest, Food, Abundance, Child Rights, Year of Mercy
Materials Required: Brighten Up Assembly PowerPoint, Brighten Up film, Ruben’s film
Optional: Games, brightly coloured props
Desired learner outcomes:

For pupils to understand that every child has the right to nutritious food

For pupils to understand how CAFOD is working with communities around the world to grow enough food
for themselves and build a brighter world

For pupils to see the relationship between taking action and supporting communities overseas
Time allocation: approx 20 mins.
Slide 1: Introduction
Good morning/afternoon everyone. I am here with you
today to think about how we can Brighten Up this
Harvest, and play our part to build a brighter world.
Slide 2:
First, I want you to think about what your favourite food is.
[Ask the children to tell the person next to them what their
favourite food is. You might wish to have props of different
food on display and select children to come up and choose
their favourite food and tell everyone why they like it.]
Imagine what it would be like if you were not able to eat
your favourite food. You would probably feel really
disappointed. Now imagine what it would be like if you didn’t know if you would even have a
meal to eat today. How different would your day be? How would you feel?
[Call nine children to the front. Hold up banner showing 795 million.]
Around the world 795 million people do not have enough food to eat – that’s one in nine
people. [Demonstrate this fact using nine children called to the front]
The vast majority of the world's hungry people live in developing countries. [Talk about
what is meant by a developing country and give some examples]
So why are people hungry? [Invite ideas from the children – you might want to talk about
families not having enough money to buy food or families not being able to grow food due
to poor soil, lack of water, changing climate and so on]
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God created our beautiful world, with enough resources for everyone, a place where we can
all live our lives to the full. There is plenty of food in our world, but the way it is shared just
isn’t fair.
Slide 3:
Meet Ruben. Ruben is eight years old.
[If you can, share Ruben’s story by showing his film.]
Slide 4:
Ruben lives with his family in Bolivia.
Let’s look at where Bolivia is on the map.
Slide 5:
Ruben lives in an area called the Altiplano, high up in the
Andes mountain range. Ruben and his family grow food to
eat, but this is not as easy as it used to be. Unpredictable
weather and poor soil has made growing food very difficult.
Not having vegetables left Ruben and his family hungry
and often left him tired and struggling to stay healthy.
Slide 6: Every child has the right to nutritious food
(see Article 24 of the UN Convention on the rights of the
child).
But what is a right? [Invite responses from the children.]
Rights are things that every child should have or be able to
do to have the best start in life. The UN Convention on the
rights of the child tells us: Every child has the right to
nutritious food.
CAFOD is supporting a project in Ruben’s community, which makes sure that Ruben has the
right to nutritious food.
Slide 7: Ruben’s community is working hard to build a
brighter world.
Through CAFOD’s partner, Ruben’s family were given the
tools to build their own greenhouse. Any they have learnt
about good farming practices. Rubin and his family are
now able to grow lots of tasty vegetables to help him grow
up big and strong.
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Slide 8:
Pope Francis has reminded us in this Year of Mercy about
the corporal works of mercy. These are the things Jesus
told us to do show everyone that we love them the way
that God loves us – things like helping people who are
hungry to have food.
That’s why we are asking you to Brighten Up this
Harvest – to help build a brighter world and to take
action to help feed the hungry.
Slide 9: We can Brighten Up our world this Harvest and
make a difference to the lives of others. By raising money
to support CAFOD projects, we can help more families like
Ruben’s to grow enough food for themselves, by providing
seeds and training in farming methods and by teaching
people how to build greenhouses.
Show the Brighten up video.
Slide 10: You have seen lots of ideas in the video but
what can you do in school/class to Brighten Up? Use the
bright colours of Bolivia to inspire you. Perhaps you could
dress up in bright colours for the day and organise a
competition to see who can wear the brightest socks or
ties. Or maybe you could hold a bright bake sale, and
decorate your cakes with colourful icing or rainbow
sprinkles. Or maybe you could pay to have your faces
painted brightly. How will you get involved and raise
money this Harvest, to help build a brighter world?
[Invite ideas from the children.]
[If using this assembly on Harvest Fast Day, please rephrase to talk about how the school
has got involved and Brightened Up this Harvest, to help build a brighter world.]
Slide 11: We are going to finish with a prayer, so let’s sit
quietly for a minute. Close your eyes and think about one
thing that has struck you from today. Then think about
the one thing you are going to tell your friends and family
when you go home.
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Let’s pray together:
Loving God,
In this Year of Mercy, help us to work together to build a brighter world,
where each of us can become the best person we can be.
Let us learn from Ruben’s community,
who are working hard to grow food and keep their families healthy.
We pray we may share generously all you have given us.
Guide us so that we play our part to help build a brighter world.
Amen
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Teacher note: Find out more about Ruben’s life and Bolivia in class, using our resources
available at cafod.org.uk/primary
 Ruben’s film
 Country guide to Bolivia
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795
million
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