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:

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:

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:

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:

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.

Read more:

• Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal: 'We had good jobs but we were still struggling'


• Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal: 'My life collapsed like a wicket'

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:

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:

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.