A Mitzvah Day at Stanmore and Canons Park United Synagogue (SACPS) proved to be the busiest event with seven “collectathons” taking place.

The synagogue in London Road, Harrow, opened its doors to the community on Sunday November 27, to celebrate Mitzvah Day.

The event is an annual day of faith-based social activities, which takes place in November each year.

A soup kitchen was opened and run by 107 volunteers on the day, to help cook food for people who rely on Harrow homeless charity Firm Foundations.

The volunteers were thanked for their hard work from Harrow MP Bob Blackman who visited the centre.

The seven “collectathons”  saw people donating clothes, toiletries, food, cleaning products and other useful household items for several charities including Toys for Camp Simcha; Kosher food for Gift;  and chocolate donations for cChai Cancer Care.

A group of Mitzvah mothers visited a Jewish Care home in Princess Alexandra House, for mother and baby activities and volunteers helped transform classrooms in the synagogue into tea rooms for 75 guests.   

People took part in a knitathon for World Jewish Relief, hair braiding and a nail painting bar was set up.

Juliette Harris, organiser of Mitzvah Day activities said: “We are extremely grateful for people giving up their time and efforts today and we really appreciated all of their help and assistance in this communal initiative for Stanmore Shul to do something good for the wider community. 

“There was such a wonderful atmosphere around the synagogue as all the volunteers rolled up their sleeves and got to work, making sure that all the activities we organised were a huge success and all the collections were sifted and sorted, ready for dispatch.  We are so looking forward to doing even more, next Mitzvah Day.”