Resurrected Bites

We had a lovely surprise today at Belmont House, our local charity Resurrected Bites dropped by with some beautiful flowers for our resident - such lovely colours, we will be doing some beautiful arrangements with the help of our residents for their rooms. Thank you so much from residents and staff at Belmont House. 

For more information about the work Resurrected Bites does or if you would like to get involved with the charity please see below:

Resurrected Bites was originally set up to run pay as you feel community cafes but since 18th March 2020, we have closed the cafes and instead have been delivering free food parcels to the most vulnerable in our area.

From 18th March until 6th May 2021, we have delivered at least 3-7 days worth of free food, toiletries, cleaning products and flowers to the equivalent of over 14,000 people. Many of our customers are repeat users of the service hence why I say "the equivalent of."

We cover Harrogate, Knaresborough, Nidderdale, Boroughbridge, Ouseburn and Ripon. We try to work through referrals from social services, mental health and carers support charities, schools in deprived areas, GPs, district nurses and churches. We have had a number of self-referrals from people who have had to suddenly self-isolate, people who were on zero-hour contracts and the self-employed who are waiting for their Universal Credit payments.

The food packages aim to include freshly prepared meals, fresh fruit and veg, bakery items, dairy, eggs, meat or vegetarian protein, store cupboard items, toiletries and household goods. We have a bespoke online platform where people can choose items they would like to receive so that we can provide people with as much dignity as possible. Whilst we get a lot of food free from supermarkets and shops who are throwing it away, we also receive food from Fareshare. Fareshare intercept food from going into landfill at the manufacturing level which has the advantage of longer shelf life and larger quantities of each item. We get a weekly delivery from their warehouse in Leeds. We have had to increase the volume of food we are getting from Fareshare to meet the great demand for our service and this has therefore increased our costs. We also need to buy eggs, toiletries, cleaning products, some food items and food packaging. We have recently started asking for donations from the general public too to meet the demand.