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    15

    Dec 2022

    Last Updated: 15/12/2022
    Community
    Community

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

    by Vicky Carr

    | 15 Dec, 2022
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    res-bites-catherine-crompton

    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.

    Resurrected Bites' fridge and freezer in the warehouse

    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.




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    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.