For the Christmas and New Year period, some services are changing, including food bank and food aid. In this guide, we have useful information on what’s running during this time of year in Bradford, Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven, including community Christmas dinners.
Foodbanks in Bradford and Craven
The Find Food in Bradford website includes an interactive map of food banks, links to emergency food and other support services: https://bradfordfoodbanks.org.uk/
Bradford North Foodbank’s Christmas opening times at their centres in Shipley and Idle can be found here: https://bradfordnorth.foodbank.org.uk/2024/11/13/christmas-opening-times-2024/
Information from Bradford Central Foodbank will be available on their website soon: https://bradfordcentral.foodbank.org.uk/
Opening hours for Skipton Food Bank are available here: https://www.skiptonfoodbank.org/
The Settle Food Pantry is open on Friday 27th December from 11am-12 Noon: https://castlebergchurches.uk/event/settle-food-pantry-3/2024-12-27/
Bentham Community Pantry is open on Monday 23rd December from 11am-12:30pm: https://www.facebook.com/PopUpPantryBentham/
Contact details for community food banks/pantries in Ingleton and Hellifield are available here: https://www.cravenfoodpartnership.org/About/Directory
Food aid and discounted food
Some major supermarket chains are selling discounted vegetables in the run-up to Christmas, up to and including Christmas Eve. They include Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Lidl and Aldi.
Community Shop on Tong Street is open as normal on Monday 23rd and Tuesday 24th December, offering discounted food for people on means-tested benefits. It is closed from Wednesday 25th-Sunday 29th December, but open between Monday 30th-Tuesday 31st December. A full list of dates is available here.
Company Shop, on Canal Road in Bradford, is open every day except Christmas Day. It is free to join, open to people working in logistics, the NHS, emergency services, the armed forces, for registered charities, support services and to people on means-tested benefits. More details of their opening times are here.
Community Christmas dinners
On the Find Food in Bradford website, there are documents listing where community Christmas dinners and emergency meals for people are on offer during Christmas: https://bradfordfoodbanks.org.uk/christmas/