Vicky Carr, Author at The Stray Ferret

Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal: ‘I shouldn’t need this – but it’s a lifesaver’

This year’s Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal is for Resurrected Bites in Harrogate and Knaresborough. Today, Vicky finds out how a series of life events left one woman unable to afford food.

Please give generously to support local people who are struggling this Christmas. They need your help.

“I feel guilty every time I go to Resurrected Bites. I keep saying I shouldn’t be here. I work full-time for the NHS. But it’s a life-saver.”

Lara Rundle is a single mum to four grown-up children.

For the last three years, she has lived in Burton Leonard, having moved up from the south-east following the death of her father.

It was the first in a string of events that left her struggling to cover all her outgoings – even before she tried to buy food.

“I had lost my dad and he was helping me pay my mortgage. Even a rabbit hutch in the south-east is mad money.

“When he passed, he said to me and my brother that he had left the money to clear our mortgages. We found out after that his partner had accidentally lost the will and she took everything.

“My house was on the point of being repossessed and I had a breakdown.

“I had only been in Harrogate twice in my life and had a midlife crisis and said I was moving to Yorkshire.”

With some savings in the bank and a small, fixed-rate mortgage, Lara had enough money to get by. However, a reaction to the covid vaccination left her leaving hospital treatment and unable to work for some time.

As she recovered, Lara received some devastating news:

“The second of my four children was in a car accident in Sussex. She broke her back in two places.

“Her friend was killed, and another friend was in intensive care.”

Lara spent many months travelling up and down the country to visit her daughter, eating into her dwindling savings.

She began to look into ways to cut her costs and find some money.

“I’ve got this big, flash car that I can’t afford, but because it keeps breaking down, the garage won’t take it back. It’s in negative equity. If it wasn’t for that, I would probably be OK.

“I’ve got equity in the house – I’ve got a very small mortgage, but the building society won’t let me release any equity because they said I don’t earn enough to repay it.”

Lara had been in receipt of some benefits, but that changed when her youngest daughter went away to university. She was given an annual pay rise of £90 a month, which meant she was no longer entitled to the £180 a month she had been receiving in Universal Credit.

At £90 a month worse off than before, she then received a letter saying her council tax was going to increase because the valuations office believed her house should be in a higher band.

Lara simply didn’t know what to do.

Shelves full of products at Resurrected Bites’ community grocery

She was helped by her GP practice, which put her in touch with Resurrected Bites.

She became a customer of the community grocery at Gracious Street in Knaresborough, paying £3 for a shop worth many times that amount. She said:

“When my kids were small, I was on my own with four kids and we did have to use a foodbank.

“Now they’re grown up, I never thought I would be in this situation again.

“I had never heard of Resurrected BItes before.

“You feel you are paying something, so it’s not a hand-out. It’s fresh fruit and vegetables. They’re the kind of things I can’t afford to buy.

“If I go to the supermarket, the only thing I have to buy is cheese and butter, sometimes meat. There’s stuff there I could never have afforded to buy even if I wasn’t in this situation.”

With her daughter well on the road to recovery and the support of Resurrected Bites when she needs it, as well as welcoming neighbours in her new home, Lara feels much more positive about the future.

She said:

“It has made such a massive difference. I know I don’t have to worry.

“If you have an extra fiver you put it on your account so you don’t have to worry about paying next time.

“I just can’t thank them enough. They’re angels. The service is a life-saver.”

Nobody in the Harrogate district should go hungry this Christmas.

It costs £300 to run the community grocery for one day. Please help to keep it open for everyone who relies on it.

Click here to contribute now.

Burst pipe leaves Harrogate homes and businesses without water

A burst water main has left homes without water and affected businesses in Harrogate this morning.

Yorkshire Water said it was working to repair the fault on Wetherby Road at 5.30am.

⚠️#WetherbyRoad #HG3 ⚠️
Apologies to customers experiencing low pressure or no water due to a burst water main, we will restore supplies as soon as possible. Thank you – Sam pic.twitter.com/ym1zhsszCE

— Yorkshire Water Help (@YWHelp) December 17, 2022

Farm shop Fodder posted on social media that it was unable to open its cafe this morning because of a lack of running water.

Its shop remains open as normal, with eight days to go before Christmas.

A Yorkshire Water spokesman said:

“We are currently dealing with a high number of burst pipes in the region due to the weather conditions. We are aware of the burst on Wetherby Road and will be attending to complete repairs as soon as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

Yorkshire Water also said this morning it was readying its leakage detection and repair teams for an increase in bursts and leaks caused by an expected thaw.

It urged homeowners to take measures to prevent damage.

Homes are particularly at risk if they have exposed water pipes on the outside of the house or an outdoor tap, which are vulnerable to the cold weather. The spokesman said:

“One way to prevent a frozen pipe is to wrap them in foam insulation to protect them from the cold weather, which is also known as lagging.”

Also this morning, Harrogate Town confirmed its fixture this afternoon at Doncaster Rovers has been called off because of a frozen pitch.

Ofsted praises ‘true family feel’ at village school near Harrogate

A village primary school near Harrogate has been praised by Ofsted for its strong values and family feel.

All Saints’ Church of England Primary School in Kirkby Overblow was ‘good’, according to inspectors who visited for the first time since it joined the Yorkshire Causeway Schools Trust in 2018.

In their report, published this week, they said:

“Pupils embody the school values well. These values help pupils to understand the importance of never giving up, being a good friend, working hard and looking out for others.

“There is a true family feel in the school. Teachers expect pupils to try their best and behave well. Most pupils expect this of themselves.

“Bullying is virtually non-existent. Pupils play together with good humour. Break times are energetic for some, and calm and relaxed for others.”

The report said the curriculum was well-designed, pupils’ learning was secure, and there was a strong focus on making all pupils fluent readers from an early age.

All areas of the curriculum are taught to all pupils, inspectors said, so even those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have the opportunity to learn and succeed. The report said pupils’ needs were identified early, allowing the school to put in place extra support.

Addressing areas to improve, inspectors recommended the school’s leaders could further refine the curriculum to fill in some gaps in pupils’ knowledge.

The report added:

“Pupils benefit from a variety of opportunities to support their broader development. They aspire to a role of responsibility. This can be as a well-being officer, sports leader, worship ambassador, charity officer or eco-warrior…

“Pupils play a key role in the community. They recently raised money for people in Ukraine through an event in the local church. Pupils have raised funds for a school in Africa and visited places of worship for other faiths…

“Staff say they enjoy working in school because leaders make sure they have a sensible workload. Leaders have restructured subject leadership. This has reduced the number of responsibilities for each teacher.

“Staff morale is good. Staff support each other. Communication is strong. Teachers say that they are willing to take a risk because there is no fear of criticism.”

The report has been welcomed by the school, whose base leader Sarah Honey said she was proud of everyone in the school. She added it was a”a very special place to work”.

Headteacher Amber Andrews, who has been in post since 2018 and also leads North Rigton Primary School, said:

“We were delighted to receive such an encouraging and complimentary report, which recognised how the whole school community embodies our values and praised the work that we had put into creating our own bespoke curriculum.

“All children are able to access this curriculum making it inclusive to all – no child misses out. Inspectors documented the excellent standard of behaviour of the children both in class and whilst playing, adding ‘pupils play together with good humour’ and value the beautiful outside space.”

Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal: How high standards help to feed hungry families

This year’s Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal is for Resurrected Bites in Harrogate and Knaresborough. Today, Vicky meets the food scientist ensuring everything is of the best quality when it reaches those in need.

Please give generously to support local people who are struggling this Christmas. They need your help.

In a quiet corner of a warehouse in Harrogate, Catherine Crompton is sorting through sachets of baby food.

Around us, shelves are packed with cat food (“let’s not get those two mixed up!”), lentils, toiletries, tinned vegetables and much more.

As I talk to warehouse manager Catherine, more produce is coming in: tins and packets and toiletries, as well as fresh fruit and vegetables. She says:

“We don’t need soup and beans at the moment. People went crackers at harvest festivals!”

What’s in short supply, she tells me, is baking ingredients. They have plenty of tea bags, but not a lot of instant coffee comes in. Apple juice, orange juice, bottles of squash and packets of everyday biscuits are also hard to come by.

The food coming through the door is mostly from supermarkets: excess produce reaching its best before date, collected by Resurrected Bites volunteers and delivered here, to the warehouse on Hornbeam Park.

Catherine says:

“Because I’ve got a PhD in food science, I actually know the shelf life. Tins last a lot longer than the dates suggest.

“Some things you have to have the ‘use by’ date because you can’t see those micro-organisms. ‘Best before’ is a standard of quality, while ‘use by’ is a food safety thing.”

Her scientific background is in evidence in the warehouse. Everything is logged as it arrives and as it leaves for Resurrected Bites’ community groceries and pay-as-you-feel cafes.

The shelves are carefully laid out and all the contents organised. Every product is checked for allergen information.

There’s an area for toiletries – which also doubles up as Catherine’s office – and one for catering packs that can be used in the cafes.

There is also a huge, industrial-type fridge and freezer, containing anything that needs to be kept chilled or frozen on arrival. Volunteers are busy loading new stock and rearranging existing contents to keep everything moving.

Much of this organisation is down to Catherine’s professional experience, with support from volunteers. She tells me:

“Because I was a consultant in the food industry, in March 2020 my job stopped. I organised food from the food industry and took it to the food bank and they put me in touch with Michelle [Hayes, founder of Resurrected Bites].”

Catherine began by helping the community interest company as it delivered food parcels to people who found themselves struggling in the early days of the pandemic. The whole operation was run from plastic trays and tables at St Mark’s Church in Harrogate.

In the two years since, things have changed significantly. Catherine says:

“We moved to Hornbeam in July 2021. It has taken a good year but we’ve got the warehouse running efficiently and a fantastic bunch of volunteers and the cafes and groceries.

“We’ve got about 150 volunteers. A lot of people going out and collecting from the supermarkets.

“We collect from virtually all the supermarkets at various times. You need that, because you don’t know what you’re going to get. Sometimes we’ve had a volunteer turn up and it’s just one loaf of bread.”

As well as taking food that supermarkets no longer need, Catherine uses her contacts in the food industry to access more supplies.

Many companies send through samples and end-of-line products that will never even make it to supermarket shelves. They are perfectly safe to eat, but would otherwise be thrown away.

Waste in the food industry is one of the reasons Catherine is so passionate about her role at Resurrected Bites. She says:

“One of our volunteers used to work in the cheese industry. Last Christmas, he got us a pallet of cheese.

“When they went through the label machine, it wasn’t put on straight – they had half of one label and half of another, instead of one complete one. They were keeping to all the regulations, they just didn’t look fancy, but who cares? It’s cheese.”

Those contacts have led to supplies of high quality sample products from companies across the Harrogate district and beyond: Bettys & Taylors, Heck, and Dales Dairies, to name just a few. Catherine says:

“A sweet company gave us some quality control samples. You go and take a shelf-ready pack and you might use one packed and leave 11 behind. We will have those 11 please!”

With demand for Resurrected Bites’ support growing all the time, Catherine is keen to keep building contacts with food producers in the region who might otherwise throw produce away, encouraging them to “wake up” and think about where the food could go instead.

Even if it can’t be used in the community groceries or cafes, Catherine and the team of volunteers will redirect it to a food bank or to FareShare, which distributes to other organisations around the country.

She adds:

“Resurrected Bites doesn’t just do ambient food like a food bank. It’s more like a supermarket shop.

“We work closely with the Trussell Trust and other organisations. We all work together. If we’ve got an excess, we share it with them, and they do the same.

“None of us want to see food wasted and because of that cooperation, very little goes to landfill.”

Nobody in the Harrogate district should go hungry this Christmas.

It costs £300 to run the community grocery for one day. Please help to keep it open for everyone who relies on it.

Click here to contribute now.

Harrogate M&S manager calls for longer Christmas fayre to bolster town centre

Retailers and a business group have said the Harrogate Christmas Fayre had a significant impact on town centre footfall.

The fayre, which ended on Sunday after 10 days, included about 50 stalls on Cambridge Street and Market Place.

It was operated by Market Place Europe in partnership with Harrogate Borough Council and Harrogate Business Improvement District.

It was part of a wider Christmas offering that also included an ice skating rink, an après ski bar and a 32-metre ferris wheel.

Although the market stalls have been disbanded, the other attractions will continue into January.

Mark Robson, store manager at Harrogate Marks and Spencer, called for the market to be held for longer next year.

He said:

“I am super positive about the impact of the market, we saw a very clear impact on improved footfall into store and spending.

“All of the comments I heard from customers and my store colleagues were about how good it was.

“My view is that we should aim to do the same again in future years, and ideally for a longer period of time. We should also have confidence to go bolder with future marketing if the event.”

The Christmas Fayre wheel in Harrogate town centre.

The ferris wheel in Harrogate town centre.

Simon Midgley, owner of Starling Bar and Kitchen on Oxford Street, said the market helped to “bolster” business.

He said:

“I think the Christmas market was much better than previous years coupled with the other attractions of the big wheel, ice rink, etc. It made it more of a reason to come into Harrogate from out of town.

“Starling has been nice and busy since reopening four weeks ago and I do believe our business has been bolstered by some trade from those visiting the Christmas market. Bookings in the run up to Christmas look strong for us.”

Sara Ferguson, chair of Harrogate Business Improvement District, which was also a partner in the Christmas activities, said:

“Harrogate’s great all year round offering, plus this year’s fabulous Christmas attractions, has seen town phenomenally busy — and not just at weekends.

“The BID team has been receiving really positive comments, with the general consensus that footfall and spend has been very much up. The manager of one national retailer told me her takings were more than 50% up compared to this time last year, which is fantastic to hear.

“The Christmas fayre has definitely helped with the pull factor, and having it in town for ten days has helped attract shoppers during the earlier part of the week. So too did the BID-funded Candy Cane Express.”

Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal: ‘We had good jobs but we were still struggling’

This year’s Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal is for Resurrected Bites in Harrogate and Knaresborough. Today, Vicky speaks to a local family who suddenly found themselves without enough money to buy basic supplies.

Please give generously to support local people who are struggling this Christmas. They need your help.

“People were really shocked to find out we were struggling. We had struggled very quietly.”

Ickle Mills and her partner Paul Hobrough were managing well until 2021.

He worked as a refrigeration engineer, while she had two jobs: one at Hotel Chocolat and the other at the Odeon.

Suddenly, a change in circumstances meant they were struggling to afford even the basics.

“It surprised a lot of people we went to Resurrected Bites. On the outside, to look at, Paul has got a fairly good job.

“I had gone on maternity leave at work and I hadn’t realised having two jobs can be problematic.

“All of a sudden, we were hundreds of pounds down a month on what I would have earned.

“We were at the point of incurring a lot of debt. Thanks to Resurrected Bites, we didn’t. It was the only thing that kept us from having to fall into quite bad debt.”

With a young son to look after, the couple were struggling to afford to feed themselves.

Paul and Ickle became customers of the community interest company’s New Park Community Grocery in Harrogate. They paid £3 a week for a shop of around 20 items, including fresh fruit and vegetables, tinned food, and toiletries including nappies.

The counters at the community groceries show how many of each kind of item can be bought in each shop

Ickle said:

“We could do our food shop there and get stuff for the baby.

“I had real problems breastfeeding and had to buy powdered milk. One of my items [from the grocery] was a £12 tub of baby milk.

“If we hadn’t been able to use them, we would have gone really short. We went short as it was, but it meant we could get stuff for ourselves.”

Not only did it help the family out financially, it also became a community for Ickle while she was on maternity leave.

The warm welcome from grocery manager Sophia and volunteers helped her out on days when she was struggling.

She has also got to know many of her neighbours better through going to the grocery, and has been able to bring food she may not have got while shopping on a budget elsewhere.

As a result, son Kenobi has been able to try all kinds of new tastes, and Ickle knows she is also helping to reduce the “ridiculous” amount of perfectly good food going into landfill.

Now, Ickle is giving up her own time to help run the grocery, covering shifts when others are unavailable.

She is back at work and the family still receives Universal Credit, which also allows them to get help with the costs of childcare, enabling her to continue in the jobs she loves.

Her experiences have made her a passionate advocate of spreading the word about organisations like Resurrected Bites and being honest about how many people are relying on them.

She said:

“It’s the state of things now, and how much all the bills are going up is a massive worry to everybody.

“A lot of people are far too proud to say, especially in this town.

“I know my situation isn’t nearly as desperate as some others. I think the more people that talk about using places like these, the less people will be reluctant to use them.”

Nobody in the Harrogate district should go hungry this Christmas.

It costs £300 to run the community grocery for one day. Please help to keep it open for everyone who relies on it.

Click here to contribute now. Thank you.

Plummeting temperatures prompt weather warning across Harrogate district

The Met Office has issued a weather warning for North Yorkshire amid freezing temperatures this week.

Lasting until Thursday lunchtime, the warning is for snow and ice which could lead to travel disruption.

In its warning, the Met Office said:

“Snow showers and icy surfaces will bring some travel disruption, [including] some roads and railways likely to be affected with longer journey times by road, bus and train services, some injuries from slips and falls on icy surfaces, [and] probably some icy patches on some untreated roads, pavements and cycle paths.”

The forecast for this week suggests temperatures are unlikely to rise more than one or two degrees above freezing during the day, with night-time temperatures dropping as much as five degrees below zero on Thursday night.

After the home match against Northampton Town last weekend was called off thanks to a frozen pitch, Harrogate Town is warning that its away game at Doncaster Rovers on Saturday could also fall foul of the weather. Supporters are asked to check for updates before travelling – and are being warned not to travel by train because of planned industrial action.

In the second half of the weekend, the forecast begins to change.

There is the possibility of some snow early on Sunday morning, before temperatures are expected to rise throughout the day and reach 10C overnight on Sunday.

At present, the forecast in the week up to Christmas suggests the weather will be warmer and wetter. Temperatures could rise to around 6C during the day and drop to 3C at night.

The likelihood of a white Christmas in the Harrogate district remains uncertain at this stage, though in the wake of the recent cold weather, bookies have slashed the odds of a white Christmas being reported somewhere in the UK.

Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal: ‘My life collapsed like a wicket’

This year’s Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal is for Resurrected Bites in Harrogate and Knaresborough. Today, Vicky meets a local man who is both a community grocery member and a café volunteer. Please give generously to support local people who are struggling this Christmas. They need your help.

The people who rely on Resurrected Bites are no different to anyone else. They have experiences, careers, aspirations and needs just as the rest of us do.

Sometimes, though, circumstances lead even the most conventional person down a road they never expected.

Justin Hardcastle tells his story.

“I worked in IT security recruitment as an account manager and lived in Harrogate most of my life. I’ve also lived in Leeds, London and Majorca, and in Austria for five years.

“In 2005, I found my mum hanging. I cut her down and gave her mouth-to-mouth and saved her life. Unfortunately, the oxygen deprivation left her with brain damage.

“In 2017, I found my brother dead in his flat. I couldn’t revive him.

“In 2019, I lost my grandma, who was a second mum to me. My mum worked two jobs and me and my brother lived with our grandparents.

“It was three bad experiences. If you look at cricket, you’ve got three stumps: the first was my mum, my brother was the second and the third was my grandma. It just all collapsed.”

Justin struggled on for a while, but his mental health declined. He had to stop working and he lost his home.

Friends helped out, including paying for hotel rooms to give him somewhere to stay. Justin said he was enormously grateful, but he needed long-term stability.

He was put in touch with Lifeline, a Christian charity providing secure places to live and support for people in crisis. It gave Justin a flat shared with two other men.

With somewhere safe to stay, Justin was pointed towards Resurrected Bites and became a member of the community grocery.

It took months for his benefit payments to start being made, but he was still able to access food supplies.

Gracious Street grocery manager Carolyn said:

“When the system goes wrong, it can leave you with literally nothing.

“We try to tell people if you’ve got nothing, don’t feel you can’t come. If you go from work onto universal credit, there’s a minimum five weeks’ wait.

“We always say we will do you voucher shops until your money’s back on course.

“That’s why we need more people to know about us. People need to know and not to be ashamed. There’s no judgement.”

Settled in at home and getting to know the team at Resurrected Bites, Justin decided six months ago to become more involved.

He volunteers every Thursday in the community grocery, as well as doing alternate Fridays in the kitchen of the pay-as-you-feel café.

His interest in food stems from his childhood, cooking with his grandmother and his brother, who went on to work in hospitality.

Some of the meals created for the Resurrected Bites cafe, created from ingredients that would otherwise be thrown away

He said:

“I love coming here. It gives me a purpose. Everyone is so friendly and I feel like I’m giving something back.

It’s heart-warming and beneficial for me, just to be part of a team and know I’m appreciated. I’m never late. I’m always early.

“You never know what you’re going to get. There was a week when we had crates of apples or strawberries or a ton of spring onions. You just never know and that’s what’s good. I’m not a chef, I just like cooking.

“From quite easily going to Sainsbury’s or Morrison’s and looking round and buying what you want to coming here, it makes you think more about food. You adapt to the situation and what you are going to get.

“It’s good for my mental health, I think, ‘what can I use, what can I make?’ it’s making me think and want to produce things differently that I wouldn’t have made.

“I feel like I contribute – I give as much as I can. Thinking about where I was, if it wasn’t for Resurrected Bites, Lifeline and my network of friends, I don’t know where I would be now.”

Having felt the benefit of Resurrected Bites in so many ways, Justin is determined to use his experience to help others.

He recognises just how easily things can change for anyone, as they did for him.

“When I worked in Leeds, I would quite happily go and have a coffee and a croissant for breakfast. Lunchtime, I’d go for a meal deal, and on an evening I might cook or have a take-away.

“That’s £15 a day. To go from that to having £3 for your weekly shop…

“I’ve changed my life and, going forward, I’m going to change my life. I want to feel I can support and help other people.

“I would like to share my experiences and possibly do something, whether it’s in volunteering or paid. I’ve got a lot to give and once I’m rehabilitated, I can show people what can happen.

“I can’t thank the organisations I’ve found and I’m part of enough. I’ve got a purpose. It’s a new start.”

Nobody in the Harrogate district should go hungry this Christmas.

It costs £300 to run the community grocery for one day. Please help to keep it open for everyone who relies on it.

Click here to contribute now. Thank you.

Christmas tree festivals 2022: guide to events taking place in the Harrogate district

Christmas is edging closer and there are plenty of festivities taking place over the next couple of weeks.

Among them are a growing number of churches hosting Christmas tree festivals around the Harrogate district.

If you fancy seeing some inspiring, creative decorations, check out our list below of some of the festivals taking place across the district.

Know of another that’s not on our list? Email the details to us now.

St James’s Church Boroughbridge

Boroughbridge launched the district’s festivals last weekend with some spectacular efforts.

Visitors cast their votes and overwhelmingly selected Kirby Hill WI’s jam jar tree as their favourite (pictures below). The Post Office was in second place and Spar came third.

In the children’s competition, Boroughbridge Scouts came out on top, followed by Roecliffe Primary School and Boroughbridge Junior School Early Years.

The festival concluded with a carol service on Sunday.

St John’s Church, Knaresborough

The St John’s Christmas Tree Festival returns for another year.

The Knaresborough Christmas tree festival takes place every year: 70 Christmas trees are decorated by local groups and are displayed in the St John’s Church in the heart of Knaresborough.

It started last weekend and is running up until the December 23.

As well as the Christmas tree competition there is live music and festive mulled wine refreshments.

There will be live music every Saturday of the festival:

Saturday, December 10
Saturday, December 17

Admission to the festival is free, but donations to the church and their chosen charity are welcomed.

The event takes place at Vicarage Lane, Knaresborough HG5 9AE.

St John’s Church, Bilton

The Christmas tree festival in Bilton got up and running last weekend and continues throughout the month.

It features 20 trees created by community groups, many themed by the teams behind them.

The church is open from 9am to 1pm, Monday to Thursday each week, for visitors to see the trees. They are also on show at services until the end of December.

Entry is free and everyone is welcome at the Bilton Lane church.

St Andrew’s Church, Blubberhouses

Another Christmas tree festival with an amazing variety of trees, a creative and festive event for everyone.

The festival is open this weekend, Saturday, December 10 and Sunday, December 11, from 11am to 4pm.

On Sunday, The 4 – a musical quartet will be singing Christmas music and carols.

There will also be wreaths and Christmas crafts for sale.

Enjoy a festive atmosphere with mulled wine and refreshments.

Admission to this event is free and it is taking place at Shepherd Hill Road, Blubberhouses, Otley, LS21 2NU.

Boroughbridge Christmas Tree Festival

St Peter’s Church, Harrogate

St Peter’s Church Christmas Tree Festival returns for its 18th year.

The festival is running from December 10 to 17 and organisers hope to make this year “bigger and brighter than ever”.

The opening times are 8am to 5.15pm.

Charities, local schools, shops, and businesses have been invited to decorate a Christmas tree or wreath, decorations can either be Christmas themed or reflect their organisation.

This gives the decorators an opportunity to tell the community about their activities and achievements and brings the whole community together for some festive fun at the end of the year.

Attendees will vote for their favourite Christmas tree, and the winner will be announced at their 9.30am service on December 18.

The trees each have their own frame with details of who the tree is sponsored by and the name or theme of the tree.

It takes place at St Peter’s Church, Cambridge Road, Harrogate HG1 1PB.

Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal: Making hearty meals from food waste

Like many people, Ian Booth’s job changed significantly when the covid pandemic began.

He had spent the previous year as manager of Resurrected Bites’ pay-as-you-feel café at St Mark’s Church.

In early 2020, along with the community interest company’s founder, Michelle Hayes, he had opened a new café at Gracious Street Methodist Church in Knaresborough and was in the process of launching another, at West Park United Reformed Church in Harrogate.

That March, they found themselves intercepting four tons of food waste each week and distributing it to people who were struggling.

Volunteers collected surplus food from supermarkets five days a week instead of two, and hospitality businesses forced to close their doors emptied their kitchens into vans and car boots.

Ian said:

“I wasn’t really anything like aware of the food poverty issue in the Harrogate area – not the scale of it. I realised people were going to be struggling, but not to this extent.

“As we were anticipating all this food waste, my immediate thought was to provide food to people who were struggling. Michelle had the same idea.

“We tapped into a huge food poverty issue in the area. We didn’t want to abandon that when the pandemic ended.

“That’s when we thought about adopting the community grocery model.”

Meanwhile, in 2021, Ian was back in the kitchen at the cafés, drawing on skills he had developed while living and working as a pastor at a church in France with his family.

“I’ve always enjoyed cooking – I do lots of it and in big quantities. We have five kids and we did so many church events.

“Because we’ve got a large family and always lived on a fairly low income, it’s a case of ‘see what’s cheap and make the most of it’.”

That experience is ideally suited to the demands of running the cafés, which take their ingredients from the Resurrected Bites warehouse.

Anything that can’t be sold in the community groceries will find its way onto the menus: catering packs of rice or chopped tomatoes, bacon, couscous, chickpeas, beef, potatoes, carrots… In late summer, a huge volume of apples arrived each week as people found their trees were producing more than they could use at home.

Ian said:

“I enjoy the creative bit – it can be very challenging. My mind starts whirring instantly about menus.

“We try and produce five main courses, a soup, a couple of desserts.”

When I visit Gracious Street Methodist Church one Friday lunchtime, roast beef and vegetables are on the menu.

It is delicious: hearty and warming on a cold day, a reminder of classic home cooking. Ian has exacting standards, though, and is constrained by what has arrived at the warehouse:

“We would normally never do roast beef without Yorkshire puddings, but we didn’t have any eggs.”

The tables are packed. Single people, pairs of friends, young families – they all share the space and make cheerful conversation as they order and eat.

The Gracious Street café is the busier of the two, I’m told, no doubt because it runs on the same day the community grocery is open in another room at the church. Knaresborough itself is a popular place to be on a Friday morning and some of the customers tell me they call in to the café after doing their shopping.

The cafés are not just aimed at people on tight budgets who might struggle to afford to eat out elsewhere, though.

Ian said:

“Often, people don’t come because they think it’s just for people who are struggling. We’re absolutely dependent on people who can afford to give generously.

“At the same time, it’s great when people come who can’t afford to, knowing that someone who is struggling has had a good hot meal.”

Many benefits

Ian is a passionate environmentalist – one of the reasons for his involvement in a project that aims to cut food waste.

He has been surprised by the many other benefits people get from Resurrected Bites. Not only does it support people to feed themselves and their families with dignity by paying for their shops, it also helps people who might have been struggling in other ways.

“Quite a number of people have come in and volunteered who have said, ‘this has been so good for my mental health’. It’s the sort of thing I wouldn’t have thought of.

“We had one guy who was helping with cooking. He was a good cook. He has gone on to work for a local charity, cooking for them. It’s brilliant.

“They asked me for a reference for him and I was able to say I couldn’t think of anybody better suited to this job. He has got that kind of compassionate heart.

“It’s great to have that experience and go on to use it in such a positive way.”

Resurrected Bites has close ties to local charities and organisations. There isn’t much that can’t be used in its cafes or community groceries, but when there is, it’s redirected to someone who can make use of it.

Volunteers helped to reopen Resurrected Bites’ cafes after covid

Approaching retirement in a couple of years, Ian is looking to cut down his hours at the cafes over the coming months.

At the same time, a new café is being planned in Killinghall. It means new volunteers and a new café manager will be needed – and Ian can only reflect on what a privilege it will be for those involved:

“I always think one of the best things about my job is the people I work with.

“We’re totally reliant on volunteers. The sort of people that volunteer are nice people, kind and caring, thinking of others.

“I just feel so blessed to have so many nice people to work with.”

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Many benefits