Ripon’s 'Waste Not' champion wins royal recognition for helping struggling families

A Ripon woman has received a royal honour for her inspirational voluntary work in turning surplus food into affordable meals for the community.

The sort of person who puts every day to good use, Caroline Bentham set up Waste Not Wednesday in 2022 at Community House in Allhallowgate.

The idea was to create delicious food items made from goods supplied by the supermarkets that could otherwise have gone to waste.

With the support of Ripon BID members Morrisons, M&S Food and Tesco, families and individuals can now get access to healthy and delicious meals freshly made each week.

Royal honour for community work - Ripon's Caroline Bentham (third from the left) is pictured with Waste Not volunteers, from the left: Joanna Collier, Catherine Wyatt, Caroline Bentham, Angela Turnbull, Janet Sutton and Graham Alderson. (Picture Tim Flanagan for Ripon BID’s Rejoicing in Ripon Blog)

Each freshly made meal dish created by Caroline and her team of volunteers costs just 50p and can be purchased at Community House every Wednesday between noon and 1.30pm.

Her tireless voluntary work, which has inspired others to become volunteers, has not gone un-noticed and she has received royal recognition with the award of a British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to the community.

The medal was presented to her by Jo Ropner the Lord-Lieutenant of North Yorkshire.

“I see the BEM as recognition of the work done by all members of the team and I also thank Morrisons, M&S Food and Tesco for donating the surplus food that we turn into meals,” Caroline told Tim Flanagan of the Rejoicing in Ripon Blog.

“In addition to the supermarkets, we receive items donated to us by Ripon -based allotment holders and this ensures that users of our service can enjoy meals that include fresh fruit and vegetables.”

While the Waste Not initiative takes up a large slice of Caroline Bentham’s time, she is also an assistant county commissioner for the Girlguiding movement in North Yorkshire West and is heavily involved in a £500,000 fundraising campaign to rebuild a community activity centre at Birk Crag in Harrogate which, when completed, will be used by guides from Ripon and across the district.

She is also chair of Friends of Spa Gardens, which launched and runs Ripon’s annual Winter Wonderland festival and a scrap metal fund that she set up to support other community projects in the city, including Ripon Men’s Shed, where she was among the original founders.