Community grocery offering discounted food opening in Harrogate
Resurrected Bites food charity are opening their first grocery shop
Last updated 11th Oct 2021
Those on low incomes are being asked to sign up to a new community grocery in Harrogate to prevent good food from going to waste.
Tomorrow (Tuesday 12 October), Resurrected Bites are opening a new shop at New Park Primary Academy with food sold at discounted prices.
Community groceries offer an affordable way for individuals and families to access good quality food. Not only does this help shoppers to save money, it also means they're helping the environment by stopping good quality food going to landfill.
Founder of Resurrected Bites, Michelle Hayes, said: "The Headmaster at New Park has given us a room in the school for us to open the grocery so people who are on a low income can come to us to get good food for a low price.
"We want lots of people to come and feel really welcome. We've got a brilliant team who are raring to go. Our focus is about food waste and stopping it from going to waste so what better thing that us giving it to people who need it most.
"There is no us and them here. We just focus on the food waste and if we can help people who're struggling financially as well it's a win-win."
The community groceries are run through a subscription scheme and are for people on a low income. For a small annual fee, you can have access to the shop and pay a very low rate for whatever you buy. It costs just a fraction of a normal supermarket shop and it saves thousands of tonnes of food from going to landfill every week.
The charity's food comes from supermarkets and other suppliers which might otherwise have to throw it away. Often, the food reaches them because of an over-supply that means there’s just too much to sell or because it is close to its ‘best before’ date.
‘Best before’ dates indicate when food is at its freshest, and are not the same as ‘use by’ dates, so the food is always completely safe to eat and often still just as good as the day it was made.
Michelle, added: "We're trying to get people to be more thoughtful about food waste in the home as well so our suppliers are so happy that the food isn't being thrown away.
"Last year we stopped 180 tonnes of food going into landfill so environmentally it makes a massive impact. But whilst we're doing it we're educating people about food waste as well."
Resurrected Bites, which was established in 2018, began life as a ‘pay-as-you-feel’ community café and by March 2020, they were running three weekly cafés across the district.
As well as reducing food waste, the cafes provided opportunities for people to support our work and socialise at the same time.
Throughout the pandemic an army of volunteers delivered thousands of hot meals to the most vulnerable across Harrogate and Knaresborough.