A Bedale-based food firm has bought and donated a bus to the local community. The HECK! pink minibus will be used to transport elderly residents to shops, markets and day trips, in a bid to combat rural isolation and suppport local businesses in nearby market towns.
The family-owned sausage and burger company is making the bus available to anyone with a clean driving licence, enabling them to transport people from local parishes to different locations each week. The bus can also be booked by other community groups, such as local schools.
The idea for the community scheme stemmed from the time of the Covid pandemic, when the company began making door to door grocery deliveries to isolated residents unable to get out to a shop themselves.
“We realised how much rural isolation there is in our local community, so we started to look at different ways to support people after the pandemic,” explains HECK! co-founder Jamie Keeble.
“We started having community lunches and getting involved with “souper” Fridays in the village hall, serving lunches and getting people together to socialise. Our Community Ambassador Becky started talking about what else we could do to help and transport was high on the agenda.”
Reverend James Gyn-Thomas, the parish rector, says: “Many locals explained at our lunches that they struggle to get out with so few bus routes in the area. As a result, they felt very isolated, so the team came up with the idea for the pink bus to get people to markets, enabling them to shop, meet up and connect. It really is a life saver for some, especially the elderly and those living in a rural community.”
According to research commissioned by Age UK*, over 1.1 million older people rely on using public transport for company. While health and mobility issues can lead to social isolation, the legacy of lockdown, coupled with the impact of the cost of living crisis have contributed to a loneliness epidemic. The local parishes close to HECK! on the Age UK map show a high risk of loneliness.
HECK!’s answer to this is the nine-seater mini bus that is available for anyone in the community with a clean driving licence to drive. The bus was launched with a visit to local market town, Masham, and has attracted support from the Mayor of North Yorkshire, local councillors and high profile celebrities, such as Peter Wright from The Yorkshire Vet.
“It’s well known that people are likely to become more reliant on public transport as they get older – we need to ensure everyone can continue to get to essential services and leisure activities.
“This scheme is a brilliant example of a local business supporting the needs of the local area,” comments David Skaith, Major of York and North Yorkshire.
Peter Wright, a local vet in Thirsk who appears in the Channel 5 series The Yorkshire Vet, added: “As soon as I heard about this initiative, I wanted to support it. In my work as a vet and also on the show, we see every day how difficult transport and mobility is for some of our community. I’m looking forward to the inaugural trip!”
“It’s really good we can give back to the community that has supported our business since we started,” says Jamie Keeble. “It’s quite isolated where we are and local bus services have been axed. The local school doesn’t have much funding for transport either. We’re also hoping that by transporting people regularly to local markets, we’ll be able to support other small businesses. We’ve already got a lot of bookings from different people.”
The community bus is funded through the HECK! Community Fund, which allocates funds every month to local good causes and also sends the team out and about to support projects. To register interest in the HECK! Community Fund visit www.heckfood.co.uk.
HECK! was established by the Keeble family in 2013 on the site of an old family pig farm and their grandfather and eldest son still farm arable land surrounding the company HQ. Earlier this year HECK! launched its Care Code, covering Health, Environment, Community and Kindness, in order to create a way of giving back and caring for customers, employees and local people in their area.
*Age UK research commissioned Jan 2023
