Residents in north Leeds link up to form 'community food bank' network

Dozens of residents across Headingley, Hyde Park, Westwood, Little London, Woodhouse and Kirkstall have been offering up their driveways or gardens as places where people can donate food to help those in need across the area.

The idea grew from a community meeting in the Kirkstall ward to try and make it easier for people to donate during the coronavirus lockdown.

Coun Hannah Bithell (Lab, Kirkstall) said: "We wanted to look at how best we could get donations and obviously having people hold the donations themselves in the community we thought might create more community buy-in. And it did - it has been absolutely amazing."

The councillors put a shout-out on Facebook for volunteers to host a food-drop box and soon had a network of around 20 homes across Kirkstall volunteering to help.

The list of addresses was circulated to local residents who were given 27 hours over a weekend to donate, before the food was collected and handed to the Kirkstall Valley Development Trust, the Covid-19 hub for the area - and this is now happening every fortnight.

The concept was swiftly adopted in Headingley and Hyde Park where local councillors were equally moved by the show of support from the community.

Coun Al Garthwaite (Lab, Headingley and Hyde Park) said: "We thought it was a brilliant idea. We were extremely impressed - it went beyond our wildest dreams. The amount of food people donated - people had obviously gone out and bought especially for this."

In Headingley, the food was taken to the Rainbow Junktion Cafe, at All Hallows Church, which delivers food parcels and offers cooked meals three times a week on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Emma Flint, a local resident and labour party candidate for next year's local elections, took on the project in Weetwood where 10 households volunteered to collect donations on Sunday and Monday this week.

One of the volunteers was Alison Larkin, 65, on Drummond Avenue, who said: "I just felt there's an increase in need and this is just a small something that people can do.

"I couldn't believe how generous people were. An absolutely huge amount of food was donated. People were constantly dropping off bags and boxes full of all sorts - tins of beans, toothpaste, dried milk, rice - everything you can image.

"It was really good, it felt very positive."

Emma said: "I think people have been grateful for an opportunity to do something that's very do-able. It's been really lovely to have conversations with people and realise that the vast majority want to support people who are struggling.

"Lockdown is not the same experience for everyone. Some people are struggling to make ends meet and food is so vital and important that people are willing to go out of their way to help others who don't have enough."

The Weetwood food donations were collected on Monday and taken to the Leeds North and West Foodbank.

The food bank's project director Karen Burgon said with lockdown and food banks being closed, people are finding they aren't able to give as they normally would.

She added: "But people are finding new ways of being able to make a donation, with reduced contact. So doing it this way, arranging it as a community, with boxes on your drive, is a really good way to ensure that we can continue to receive donations."

For more information or to register an interest in helping in future foodbank collections contact the councillors or for Westwood, email Emma on [email protected].

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