STAFF and volunteers from a Barnard Castle charity spread a little love – and a few tasty treats – last week, when they took their food support programme on tour.
The group, from The TCR Hub, set up shop on Scar Top on Wednesday as part of their summer food support programme offering free food to visitors and craft sessions for children.
Katie Byram, food provision officer at The Hub, said: “In term time we normally do an out-reach support programme at Evenwood School. We hand out food donated by local supermarkets.
“In the summer holidays we will be doing the outreach at different locations to spread the message of what we do at the Hub and the activities we have on offer.
“Our aim is to visit places and take the provision to people who may not have discovered what The Hub offers, both in activities and support.”
On Scar Top, as well as tasty morsels from the community fridge there were a range of dishes, cooked up by the Hub’s Louisa Brownless, from food that would have gone to waste. Ms Byram added: “The previous week, we set up in Dawson Road in Barney and we had about 30 people come along.
“This week, we were supposed to be at the YMCA at Cockfield, but had to change at the last minute.
“It’s been a great afternoon and we’ve had a lot of people come along and chat with us, take part in the crafts and pick up some tasty food that would ultimately have gone to waste.”
The team will be at the Randolph Centre in Evenwood today (Wednesday, August 7) between 1pm and 3pm; Utass, in Middleton-in-Teesdale, on August 14, and Dawson Road play park, in Barnard Castle, on August 21.
Ms Byram said: “All in we had 23 adults and about 26 kids, an even mix of locals and visitors.”
Each day of the summer the Hub are also handing out ten free breakfast bags filled with cereal or porridge, fruit and pastries, to help families over the holidays.
The summer food programme is being funded by a grant from Marwood Parish Council.
For more information visit www.tcrhub.co.uk.
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
