Retired lecturer Mike Leddra sat down with Holly O'Connor to discuss how the Byker
Pantry he runs is providing food and building community in one of Newcastle’s most
struggling areas.
Only a 15 minute walk from the City Centre of Newcastle, a stroll to Byker shows a rapid
decline in wealth. I was undeniably shocked the first time I was faced with the inner city area.
Its rundown buildings, isolated littered roads and overflowing allotments seem a world away
from the shiny busy streets of Newcastle City Centre. It’s hard to imagine that just a mile down
the road, struggling families in Byker suffer in poverty, with some barely able to put food on the
table. A community that was built in the depths of a wall and left to function by itself, with
little help from the outside world. Yet, in the heart of this community, hidden behind a small
blue door, lies a food pantry that is battling to defeat Byker’s rough reputation and slowly but
surely have been successfully restoring the community of Byker.
Every Tuesday and Thursday, the Byker Pantry in Richmond Borough is flooded with local
families who are welcomed with tea and coffee and given the opportunity to cheaply buy their
weekly groceries due to donations and fundraising through Life Vineyard Church. However,
affordable food.
Mike Leddra, who began the pantry over a year ago alongside his wife Ann and two other
team members Joan and Frank, is exactly what you might expect a retired Sunderland
University geology lecturer to be like. The couple who live in Washington began their journey
with the pantry after attending Life Vineyard Church and expanding what once was the
church’s food and clothes bank into a pantry that suited the need for something more. Reclined
back in his seat, legs crossed with a comforting warmth in his eyes, Mike explains that the
problem with normal food banks is that they don’t solve the problem. “There’s a huge issue
with food banks in that they often don’t help the people who actually need it. It’s not uncommon
for people to take food free of charge and try to sell it on. So, at most of these banks, you can
only go three times.” Three times a week? I naively ask. “No, three times in your entire life.” He
chuckles at my shock. “Most people don’t seem to know that but that’s just the rules and often
you have to be referred into a food bank as well, you can’t just turn up.”
What’s even more surprising is that food banks tend to give out lots of foods like rice and pasta,
but many food banks don’t consider that many people can’t prepare and cook food like this.
They’ve simply never been taught how. “Once we had a bloke come to us and he’d been to a
food bank and had been given a load of tins but he was living on the streets - he hadn’t even
got a tin opener!” Mike explains with irony. “He couldn’t even eat anything he’d been given. We
simply went out and bought him a tin opener, but nobody at the food bank had actually thought
of that.”
Proving to be a success, the pantry currently has over 250 members with anyone living,
working, or have kids attending the schools in Byker allowed to join. “A member might be a
mum and four kids so the number of people we touch, if you like, is easily thousands. That
tiny pantry can really reach that many people and people are always bringing friends in and
encouraging them to join.”
Everything in the shop is priced and labeled in points, and for every £1 paid, a member will
receive 200 points. Members can go in and spend their points on whatever food they require,
giving them a choice and freedom that is often taken away from them simply because of the
lack of money they have. The food is provided by donations from the church and the occasional
trip to Makro, allowing for all the produce in the shop to be sold for less than half the price of
anywhere else. “It’s proved to be really interesting to watch,” grinned Mike, “Some people at the
beginning of the month will put forty quid in, and then they know that they have that money
stored away safe for the month, so whatever else they decide to do with their money, they know
they can always come and get food.”
The positive impact of the pantry is even more so evident by just hearing the ever-growing list
of stories from Mike. “One lady said she had saved so much money with us that she’s now
already got in all her stuff for Christmas, including presents and she’s never been able to do
that before.”
Another family, who has been using the pantry from the beginning have saved a thousand
pounds on food and these savings have allowed them to budget their housing bills more
effectively, reducing money stress.
However, Mike believes the pantry does more than just knock off the pounds from a few food
bills. “When people have a problem, they will come to us and we do our very best to help them
out.” He sighs, “the most important part is that we are trying to build a community in Byker that
should’ve been there in the first place.”
The various ways the pantry help out individual members of the community is admirable and
heartwarming, ranging from attending court to support people who are being threatened with
eviction as well as helping out those with personal problems in the home. Mike explains:
“We’ve recently been helping out a family where the Dad has left the Mum with their four kids
and she has never had anything to with the bills and so was just in an absolute panic. It’s stuff
like that we can help with and she simply couldn’t believe it - she kept saying, ‘I didn’t know you
did this, I thought it was just the food,’ and that’s what it’s all about really.”
While also having a massive impact on the community, Mike believes the pantry has also made
a difference in his own life. “I could quite easily be a hermit,” he lightly jokes. “I’m happy in my
own company and my wife Ann is the chatty one but in here I can’t help myself. I really love the
work here and when we are away, I miss it, which I find completely bizarre but that’s the truth.”
What keeps you driven? He humbly shrugs. “I love seeing the changes in people and I know
God plays a huge part in our work. To be able to pray for people whilst helping them out
practically is such a privilege.”
“I believe Church should be out with people in the community. I once proposed that we could
sell Durham Cathedral and do something actually useful with the money,” he says laughing
wholeheartedly. “Jesus wouldn’t be sitting in a church building. He would be out there and so
when the opportunity to retire came I thought, now is the time to really work with a community.
We had no trouble giving up everything. We were ready.”
Plans to expand the pantry can be seen in the near future with Mike enthusiastically
declaring that the future is looking bright. “People are constantly astonished by how much
we do but, honestly? The food doesn’t matter. We will keep that going but helping people in
any way we can is what’s fundamentally important. The pantry is just a label for somewhere
to come to, not necessarily somewhere to just get food from. It’s more than just a pantry
and really that’s the beauty of it.”
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