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Dec 2022
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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