How our Cone Exchange project is helping during the pandemic

At the start of 2020, our Cone Exchange was looking forward to its busiest and best year yet. The project had already come far since 2003, when it began as a way to find inventive new uses for leftover materials – and not just cardboard cones – from Bettys Craft Bakery and the Taylors Tea & Coffee Factory.

From that simple start it had grown into a tightly knit web of mutually supporting initiatives, including charity fundraising, education, work placements for adults with additional learning needs and providing a treasure trove for schools and crafters. And the calendar for the coming months was packed with exciting new plans and activities.

We all know what happened next. But if anyone can be resourceful, it’s the Cone Exchange’s upcycling experts. Instead of consigning 2020 to the bin, they set about tackling the challenges brought by the coronavirus pandemic and found new ways to support the community.

On a normal day at the Cone Exchange, a dedicated team of volunteers would be busy at its Starbeck HQ, sorting through donations. As well as our unwanted packaging materials, paper and fabric, this includes offerings from other local businesses and individuals – everything from envelopes and knitting needles to fabric sample books and sewing machines. Others might be attending educational events to help spread the word about reducing waste and encourage children to collect recyclable items in return for craft supplies.

Naturally that all came to an abrupt halt when lockdown arrived in March. Yet although many of the Cone Exchange volunteers were in vulnerable groups shielding at home, they found plenty of ways to keep busy. Using donated fabrics and haberdashery, they sewed much-needed masks, scrubs and laundry bags for hospital staff in Harrogate. Meanwhile, spare buttons and scraps of elastic were turned into headbands – a neat remedy for the sore ears that many nurses suffer from wearing masks for long periods.

Across Bettys and Taylors, people helped out wherever they could. Instead of going to waste, food that had been destined for the six Bettys cafés was donated to Knaresborough project Resurrected Bites to assist people across the Harrogate district. Residents of sheltered housing for older people in York were delighted to receive fresh loaves of Bettys bread, while York charity The Island added bread, cakes, Yorkshire Tea and some extra Bettys Easter treats to its food parcels for families. Millions of Yorkshire Tea bags were given out nationally and Age UK helped us deliver 1,000 care packages to isolated elderly people.

It wasn’t just food that could bring relief to those enduring hard times. The summer holidays of children in 100 vulnerable families were brightened up by our junk modelling craft kits, while a donation of paper and festive gift bags helped Resurrected Bites wrap up Christmas gifts.

This last year has been particularly difficult for charities and community groups who are unable to do their usual fundraising. In 2020 Bettys & Taylors donated to the Two Ridings Community Foundation relief fund aimed at helping small local organisations stay afloat, and in early 2021 we set up our own grant scheme. Neither could we forget the hard work of staff in Bettys cafés, who raise money for causes that are special to them. We topped up each branch’s fundraising pot and helped boost their efforts online.

Although the Cone Exchange’s Starbeck shop briefly reopened with Covid-safe measures last autumn, for now you’ll have to content yourself with a virtual tour.