20
Mar
Help at hand for families struggling to put food on the table in Harrogate and Knaresborough
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Families struggling financially in Harrogate and Knaresborough are being encouraged to sign up to one of the community grocery stores run by Resurrected Bites.
Resurrected Bites was set up in 2021 with a mission of working to reduce food waste and food poverty by ‘filling bellies not bins’.
Its groceries are not food banks, where food is free and choice is limited. Instead, they run through a subscription scheme and for a small annual fee, members have access to the shop, can select the items they want just as they would in a normal shop or supermarket, but they only pay a fraction of the price.
This is what £5 could buy at one of Resurrected Bites' community grocery stores.
The organisation still has additional capacity to support more people, so is hosting an open day at New Park grocery from 11am to 3pm on Thursday, March 27 to raise awareness about its services.
Michelle Hayes, chief executive of Resurrected Bites said:
The perception is that Harrogate and Knaresborough are affluent places, so there can’t be a need for initiatives like community groceries, but that’s simply not true. In Harrogate district, research shows that one in five children are living in poverty, which means that almost 6,000 children are growing up here in a household that may not be able to afford enough to eat.
Since we started the community groceries we’ve seen a growing number of people facing food poverty, many who are working but just can’t make ends meet. And this problem looks set to get worse as council tax, water and energy bills increase significantly from April.
We’re delighted to have served nearly 20,000 weekly food shops so far, but we’d love to be able to help more people which is why we’re opening our doors to everyone on 27 March, so they can find out more about what we do.
Whether that’s members of the public, or referral agency staff who might be working with individuals or families who need some extra support, everyone is welcome.
We’re here to help, not to judge, so we’d encourage anyone who’s interested in finding out more to pop in for a friendly chat.
Resurrected Bites CEO Michelle Hayes with volunteers Sue Ward, Sarah Lofthouse and Justin Hardcastle.
Over the last three-and-a-half years, Resurrected Bites has served almost 20,000 weekly food shops to low-income families at its community grocery stores in Harrogate and Knaresborough and is now opening its doors to welcome new members.
The community groceries, which are based in New Park Primary Academy in Harrogate and Gracious Street Methodist Church in Knaresborough, offer an affordable way for people to access good quality, nutritious food.
Last week, the organisation won the Inclusivity Award at the Stray Ferret Business Awards.
One customer who has been shopping at the Resurrected Bites community groceries for the last couple of years said it had made a real difference to her and my family.
She said:
It’s a lifeline if you’re on a tight budget, it gives you a bit of breathing space.
At first, I was a bit nervous about coming because I thought people would judge me, but everyone was so friendly and welcoming and I was treated with dignity and respect. It’s about so much more than just food – it’s about community, friendship and support which are just as valuable to me as the food that I buy.
As well as offering an affordable way for people to buy food and other household items, the community groceries also reduce waste by using surplus food from supermarkets and other suppliers that might otherwise end up in landfill. Much of the food is donated because of over-supply issues or because it is close to its ‘best before’ date, so everything sold is completely safe.
In a six-month period last year, Resurrected Bites, which also offers wraparound support services including budgeting, a work club, cookery courses, and three ‘pay as you can’ community cafés each week, prevented 56 metric tonnes of good-quality food from going into landfill.
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