Cost of living: Harrogate charity’s fears people may go without hot food or heating this winter

Resurrected Bites, a community organisation established in 2018 by its founder Michelle Hayes to reduce food poverty and food waste, is well used to adapting to challenges.

Forced to close its three weekly cafes during lockdown, it switched to providing free home deliveries of food and essentials for vulnerable families and individuals across Harrogate, Knaresborough, Nidderdale, Boroughbridge, Ripon and Ouseburn.

The present economic situation is now so dire, it not only fears for its clients but how it is going to operate to help them.

“As an organisation, we are extremely concerned about the coming months," said Michelle Hayes, CEO of Resurrected Bites.

"So many people are already struggling to make ends meet with rising food, energy and fuel costs.

"The winter is obviously looking very bleak and causing a great deal of anxiety for so many people.

"Over the past few weeks, both existing and new customers signing up to our services have repeatedly spoken of their fears of being unable to pay rising energy bills and how they're going to make ends meet.

"Some are talking about turning off the heating this winter and not cooking hot meals, which will have knock on consequences for their health as winter approaches.

"Many have also spoken about rising prices in the shops and how they can no longer afford the food they once could.

“As an organisation, we are extremely concerned about the coming months."

Like many other community groupd, Resurrected Bites is concerned it faces being squeezed from both sides.

Demand on its services, which involves using ingredients that were destined for landfill and use them to create delicious dishes in its weekly cafés, sold on a ‘give as you can’ basis, will increase at the same time as the costs of meeting that growing need also spiral.

Michelle Hayes said: "We are expecting that we will be busier than ever with people coming to the give-as-you-can community cafes to get warm and have a hot meal and more people who are in food poverty needing support from our community groceries.

"The small charge people pay for using the groceries also doesn’t cover the costs of running the groceries.

"We are also concerned about the energy costs for our partners where we base our cafes and community groceries."

Resurrected Bites is stepping up its fundraising and appealing for donations.

Michelle Hayes said: "As an organisation we are looking at more ways to fundraise as the financial donations we get at the give-as-you-can cafes have not covered our costs since the pandemic hit and we don’t anticipate this will improve in the coming months."

The Resurrected Bites three weekly cafes are located at:

West Park United Reformed Church Cafe, Harrogate on Wednesdays,10am-2pm.

The New Park Community Grocery, Harrogate on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9.30am-3pm.

The Gracious St Methodist Church Grocery, Knaresborough on Tuesdays and Fridays, 9am-2pm.

Resurrected Bites also offers a community groceries scheme at an affordable price, using food from supermarkets and other suppliers which might otherwise have been thrown away.

If you would like to make a food donation or find out more, visit www.resurrectedbites.co.uk/#getinvolved