Vicky Carr, Author at The Stray Ferret

Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal: Making Christmas special for struggling families

This year’s Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal is for Resurrected Bites in Harrogate and Knaresborough. Today, Vicky finds out what its team and supporters have been doing to ensure its customers can have a happy Christmas, even in difficult circumstances.

Our appeal runs for two more days. Please give generously to support local people who are struggling this Christmas. They need your help.

The festive season may be upon us, but demand for help from Resurrected Bites has never been higher.

Sophia Clark, who runs the organisation’s community grocery in New Park, said:

“We’ve had a really busy two weeks. It’s going to be busy up to Christmas.

“We’re getting a lot of new people in – two just this morning.

“On Tuesday, I had a woman in pieces. She had three children on her own and had gone to do her food shopping. Her direct debit had changed for her gas and electric and they’d left her overdrawn.”

Along with the volunteers at New Park, Sophia was able to fill the woman’s freezer to see her through the festive period and ensure her children wouldn’t go hungry.

She later received a message thanking her for what she had done, concluding: “God bless you, you are a diamond and a special one at that.”

Sadly, the woman was just one of many who have been forced to call on Resurrected Bites for the first time this month alone.

Sophia said:

“We’re seeing lots of things like that at the moment – people in absolute dire straits.

“We’ve had a lot of pensioners in. One lady had gone to deliver a Christmas card to a friend and found her shaking and freezing. She couldn’t afford the heating.”

Sophia said some of the stories she hears are heart-breaking. Along with volunteer Karen Martin, who also speaks to people arriving at the community grocery to ensure it can meet their needs, Sophia said she often cries in the office behind closed doors once the visitor has left, before getting back to work.

But the very tough side of the job is balanced by the heart-warming elements.

Sophia knows she is making a difference at a time of crisis for many people – messages like the one from the mum whose bill had left her overdrawn provide some comfort amid all the challenges.

There is also fantastic generosity towards Resurrected Bites and its customers, especially at this time of year.

When I visited the New Park community grocery last week, there was a small Santa’s grotto in the corner, with a volunteer ensuring children could meet Father Christmas even if their parents couldn’t afford to buy tickets for a commercial event.

The shelves had been stacked that morning with toys and chocolates for those who wouldn’t be able to afford treats. Although they had been snapped up quickly, more were still coming in and being laid out for other customers.

Resurrected Bites founder Michelle Hayes said:

“A few people have expressed concern about not being able to buy presents for their families this year.

“The last thing we want is people taking out loans. So we’ve been able to give out presents to make sure they have something to unwrap on Christmas Day.”

Businesses and individuals have been generous with selection boxes, tubs of sweets and other small luxuries for Resurrected Bites to distribute to its customers.

There have also been deliveries of blankets, warm jumpers and festive decorations.

The Christmas tree in Santa’s grotto at New Park came from the festival at St Thomas the Apostle Church in Killinghall, donated by Mole Country Stores near Ripley. After being on display at the community grocery, the firm asked that it be given to a family who wouldn’t otherwise have a Christmas tree.

The amount of food and other treats available is a dramatic improvement from earlier this year, when demand was outstripping the volume of waste food arriving from supermarkets.

Sophia said the kind of generosity in evidence in the run-up to Christmas – and knowing how much difference she and the volunteers could make to people – is what has kept her going in challenging times.

“I look at those people and the feedback I get. That’s what I do this for: I get to help people and make a change.

“I had message after message last night from people asking if they could come down [to shop]. I’m just so grateful we’ve got the food to give them.

“A couple of months ago, it was so low, but now at least I know nobody has to go without for Christmas.”

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.

Dozens to enjoy free Christmas dinner thanks to Knaresborough volunteers

A former firefighter will serve Christmas dinner to as many as 100 locals from across the Harrogate district.

Bruce Reid has been working with a team of volunteers to coordinate the Knaresborough Christmas Day Dinner, ensuring nobody has to feel lonely.

From peeling sprouts to organising gifts for children, they are spending this week putting on the event, with Mr Reid set to be busy in the kitchen at the Masonic Lodge in Knaresborough for most of Christmas Day.

After years spent working shifts on Christmas Day, following his retirement he said he has no interest in sitting quietly at home while he could be helping others:

“I haven’t had a Christmas Day off in all those years and now I’ve got the option to have it off, but it doesn’t appeal to me, not doing something on Christmas Day.

“My kids have long grown up and are perfectly happy with their own families. As a dad, i’m not needed.

“My wife is more than happy. She’s just used to me doing stuff like this. She’ll be with her mum and grandkids on Christmas Day morning.

“We’ll get back together later on and we have our Christmas Day on Boxing Day.

“I get so much pleasure out of doing this, I would be more miserable if I didn’t do it.”

Mr Reid – who was made an MBE in 2015 for services to the Firefighters Charity and the community – first put on a Christmas Day meal at Harrogate Fire Station before he retired. With nobody in the force stepping up to host it, he decided to continue in the community from 2020.

Last year, he and the organising committee served Christmas lunch to around 60 people, and there are already more than 70 signed up for this year’s service.

As well as being referred by social services, Harrogate Borough Council and community organisations like Resurrected Bites, people can contact the organisers directly.

Mr Reid said the meal is open to anyone who wants to join, as are the home deliveries of a hot Christmas dinner. He added:

“There might be people who have got somewhere to live and plenty of money, but are just on their own and lonely.

“It all started for me when my dad had dementia. My step-mum cared for him until the point he had to go into a care home.

“Although she had somebody with her, there was no stimulating conversation – it was quite lonely. How many people might be out there whose partner is ill or they still feel lonely even though they’re not alone?

“I wanted to do something that’s not just for people who are homeless but people who have got financial struggles and can’t afford to eat, people on their own who want someone to share Christmas with, or people who are looking after someone.

“The carers themselves might want some company so they can bring the person they’re caring for and join us.

“We offer people the option of coming into the hall and eating with us, but if they don’t want to do that, they have a young family or whatever, we deliver the food to them.”

So far, around 30 people have signed up to eat at the Masonic Lodge, and another 45 will receive their meals at home. Bruce expects there to be more than 80 in total by the time they stop taking requests on Friday – and he said he wouldn’t be surprised if that number reached 100.

There are volunteers wrapping gifts to send out to children, prepping veg for the meal, serving to visitors, driving hot food around to people’s homes, and clearing up at the end of the day.

To find out more about the meal, email the organising committee or call Bruce Reid on 07958 653084.

Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal smashes £20,000 target for Resurrected Bites

This year’s Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal is for Resurrected Bites in Harrogate and Knaresborough. Today, Vicky gives an update on the fundraising, with five days left of the appeal.

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

An incredible £22,000 has been raised for Resurrected Bites in less than four weeks thanks to the generosity of Stray Ferret readers.

As well as contributions from individuals across the district, many businesses have donated to the Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal.

Taking us over our £20,000 total this week was a fantastic £5,000 from Windsor Private Office Financial Planning, based in Harrogate.

Every penny from those donations goes directly to Resurrected Bites. Click here to see the latest total.

The Stray Ferret chose to support Resurrected Bites after it warned in autumn that it faced significant financial challenges in running its community groceries and pay-as-you-feel cafes, all using food that would otherwise go to landfill.

It costs £7,500 each month to keep the organisation going, and its income was falling short by £3,000 every month.

Michelle Hayes, founder of Resurrected Bites, said:

“A massive thank you to the Stray Ferret for running the appeal and to everybody who has donated.

“This money is going to give us security for about eight months, covering the shortfall we have. We’re in a much stronger position starting 2023 than we were a few months ago.”

We launched the appeal on November 29 to run for four weeks until Christmas. With an initially modest target of £5,000, we soon realised we were going to pass that in a matter of days.

We increased the target to £20,000 and your donations continued to roll in.

Knowing the challenges of the cost of living crisis and the extra strain on many household budgets these days, we have been overwhelmed by just how generous our readers have been in supporting Resurrected Bites.

It’s all down to the willingness of its members and volunteers to be open about the challenges facing them. From the young Ukrainian family working to build a new life in Knaresborough to the single mum and full-time NHS employee whose circumstances changed dramatically, they have illustrated how vital Resurrected Bites is to so many local people.

Their powerful stories have also highlighted how easily many of us could end up in the same situation.

It’s often said that many households are just one pay day away from being in serious financial trouble. If you were to lose your job, or find yourself unable to work, could you cover your bills and still put food on the table?

That situation is facing new people every day. Michelle said just this week, there have been more people coming through the doors of the community groceries, looking for support to get them through the toughest of circumstances.

She said:

“It has been heartbreaking this week, with people who haven’t heard of us before getting in touch very late in the day saying they have nothing for Christmas, no presents for the kids.

“The situation is certainly not improving.”

Resurrected Bites is there to support people with dignity, providing affordable groceries – and reducing food waste at the same time – for as long as people need them.

While calls for help have continued to come in, so have donations of food. Resurrected Bites is often chosen as the recipient of ‘reverse advent calendars’, where organisers put an item in a box every day through December and donate it all at the end of the month.

Anyone wishing to give food can do so at Resurrected Bites’ warehouse at the rear of Disability Action Yorkshire on Hornbeam Park Oval, Harrogate, on Wednesday, December 21 or Thursday, December 22, between 9am and noon.

Meanwhile, we may have passed our £20,000 fundraising target, but our appeal continues right up until Christmas.

Later this week, we’ll bring you stories about how Resurrected Bites is helping to make Christmas magical for everyone, ensuring people are fed and children don’t go without presents.

Please keep donating to the appeal. It really will make all the difference to local people this Christmas and beyond.

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.

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.

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