Cornish musicians and entertainers record Christmas song to help struggling local families
The 'Feed Cornwall' song is helping to raise awareness of food poverty in the Duchy
Last updated 8th Dec 2020
A group of musicians and entertainers from across Cornwall have recorded a special Christmas song and video to help support struggling local families.
In 1984 a group of musicians released a song which has since sold over two million copies across the world and raised more than £150m to help feed starving people.
36 years later it is Cornwall’s turn, with a host of well-known local musicians and entertainers joining together to record a special Cornish version of the original Feed the World ( Do They Know it’s Christmas’) charity single.
It is aiming to help raise awareness of the problems caused by food poverty in the county and raise money to support struggling local families.
Recorded at the CUBE recording studio in Perranporth in just eight hours by the ‘CHAOS Collective’, including local singers Molly Hocking, Bailey Tomkinson and Will Keating, Don Gardner from the Camborne, Pool and Redruth Foodbank, Josh Curnow, Susie Mac, Matthew Thompson, Rev Andrew Yates, Tiffany Truscott and Pirate FM's very own radio presenter, Johnny Cowling.
Staff from the CHAOS Group and local band The Stowes provided the backing track, and the “Feed Cornwall” song and accompanying video will be available to watch here from 11.30 am on Tuesday 8th December.
Everyone watching the video is being invited to make a donation if they can afford to towards the project.
All the money raised is being ring fenced to support food banks and other projects to tackle food poverty in Cornwall.
Donations will be managed by the Cornwall Community Foundation who will work alongside local organisations, including the Cornwall Food Access Alliance, Transformation Cornwall and the CHAOS Group, to ensure funding is targeted at helping vulnerable people.
You can watch it below...
The idea of creating a Cornish version of the iconic Feed the World song came from the food team at the Truro based CHAOS Group, just two weeks ago.
As well as delivering a wide range of community focused services across Cornwall, the organisation plays an active role in the redistribution of supermarket surplus to people in food insecurity.
Babs and a colleague were carrying trays of produce into their building at St Clement ready to put into food boxes when they heard the original song playing.
“We were singing along to the chorus when we thought we should do our own version to raise money to feed more people in Cornwall over Christmas” said Babs.
Staff at the CHAOS Group were already very aware of the issues created by food poverty in Cornwall, with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic leading many more people to seek support from food banks. During the past few months CHAOS staff, working with a range of partners and volunteers, have provided support to many hundreds of local families.
Last month a new community partnership scheme set up as response to Covid with members of the Threemilestone and Gloweth Community Volunteer Group helped to ensure that 500 local children and families had food to eat during half term.
At CHAOS good ideas move very quickly. Excited by the potential of making their own version of the song, Babs called in key members of her team, including Nathan Hunkin, Head of Digital at CHAOS, to discuss how to turn the “crazy idea“ into reality.
Following a few hours of frantic phone calls and emails, music producer Gareth Young had volunteered the use of the CUBE studio to record the track, and a number of local singers and musicians had pledged their support.
“It was truly crazy“ said Nathan. “Just as with the original Band Aid singles, everyone we spoke to wanted to help.
“Food poverty is a huge issue across Cornwall, impacting on many areas of people’s lives. One of the unexpected results of the pandemic has been to bring local communities back together and it has been amazing to see people who had not previously known their neighbours now looking out for each other.“
With the cast confirmed, the enthusiastic group of volunteers spent Sunday, 30th November at the CUBE recording studio.
As well as singing on the track, Cornish entertainer and Pirate FM's very own Johnny Cowling says he was delighted to be asked to act as the compere for the recording.
“It’s been a very tricky year, both emotionally and financially, for many people“ he said. “To be asked to be part of this project, which is going to help out our very own here in Cornwall, was a privilege”.
As with the original Feed the World event, it was decided to record a video to accompany the launch of the song to give members of the public the opportunity to see behind the scenes of the production. Filmed and edited by the CHAOS Digital team, the film will be available to view on the Chaos Group website following the official launch.
Since the introduction of the first lockdown in March CHAOS has provided food aid to hundreds of families across Cornwall through its Food2Share scheme. At the height of lockdown the scheme was providing food boxes to up to 750 families a week.