A scheme which provides emergency food parcels for people facing temporary financial problems has been given a helping hand by a group of young people.
The youngsters along with their parents held two supermarket collections during the school holidays to help boost depleted stock levels for Hambleton FoodShare.
They choose to support Hambleton FoodShare whilst taking part in North Yorkshire Police’s Lifestyle Challenge which ran over the summer holidays – the aim of which was to engage students into positive help in their communities during the holidays.
Both Tesco’s and Sainsburys in Northallerton agreed to host the one –off collections.
“We were very impressed with the caring and enthusiastic attitude of the Lifestyles group, and their parents,” said FoodyoungersShare Co-ordinator, Margaret Brice.
“It is encouraging that even the younger members of our community are concerned about those in temporary financial need and we are very grateful to all concerned, as well as the many generous members of the public who supported their efforts.”
“The best part in my opinion was actually doing the collections and finding out how much we actually raised, it felt good for all of us,” added one of the students.
“There wasn’t really any hard parts, but we found having to stand up for seven hours quite tough. We learnt lots of things, like how to go up to people without being a nervous wreck. It helped us work more like a team, especially when no one tried to be the leader and do everything their way!”
- The community led partnership provides a three day food parcel to people in immediate financial crisis -through unemployment, incapacity or a delay in benefit payment. The volunteer-led food store is open every Monday between 4pm and 6pm at the Zion United Reformed Church in Northallerton with a satellite scheme in Bedale. To receive emergency food help customers must be able to demonstrate their need, primarily by being referred through an agency or by self-referral.