Two farm shops have been crowned the winners of the Deliciouslyorkshire Lockdown Legend Awards this week.
Bert’s Barrow from Hillam near Selby and Lawns Farm Shop based near Rotherham were awarded the top spots in the Business and Community categories respectively.
Run in association Leeds based design and branding consultancy CHILLI, the Awards were created to shine a light on the innovative work and acts of kindness being carried by the region’s food and drink businesses over recent months and after launching on Yorkshire Day, the Deliciouslyorkshire team received over 200 nominations.
A judging panel then had the difficult task of narrowing down the entries into two category shortlists, highlighting those who had gone above and beyond for their customers, community and the wider industry.
The 12 shortlisted businesses were then put to a public vote and the winners announced on Tuesday 1st September along with 2 highly commended entries – Appleton Wiske Village Shop who acted as a vital hub for their local villages, distributing surplus garden produce and sourcing local businesses products and the Ye Old Sun Inn at Colton who transformed their pub into a village shop at the height of the crisis and kept their staff employed making fresh bread, cakes and takeaways for villagers and delivering to those who needed it.
The winner of the Business Award, Bert Barrow, were the first in the region to change their traditional Farm Shop into a drive thru, allowing customers to order through their car windows and have their shopping put directly into the boot. As well supporting their community, the team also continued to support over 100 local growers and producers as well as expanding their team from 1 member of staff to 10, employing people who had lost their jobs due to lockdown.
Lawns Farm Shop were voted winner of the Community Award as lockdown saw them expand their milk round to keep up with demand and introduce food deliveries throughout the local area. Their customers also praised their hard work and dedication to making the shopping experience as pleasant and stress free as possible, even getting them to queue through the farmyard so they could watch the animals while they waited.
Food expert and Lockdown Legend judge Nigel Barden said: “The Yorkshire food and drink community has responded magnificently to the ramifications of Covid 19, and we heard many touching stories about our shortlisted businesses.
“Rapid and innovative responses, resulting in pubs and hotels turning themselves into food distribution hubs and cooking meals for their communities, butchers providing a host of other products and distillers turned to hand-sanitiser manufacture, we applaud these resourceful, energetic and generous food heroes for whom sleep must have been in short supply. It’s been a privilege to shine a light on their endeavours.”
CHILLI’s MD and Lockdown judge David Whittle added: “It’s been amazing seeing not only the amount of entries and votes but truly humbling to read the stories of how businesses and individuals have coped during the past few months.”
The Lockdown Legend Awards have taken the place of the Deliciouslyorkshire Taste Awards which were postponed due to Covid 19 restrictions this summer and will now take place in Spring 2021.