‘Apples for Armley’ proves a big success

By Andy Dalton

Nearly 2,000 apples have been collected and given away in Armley!  

Every day over the last four weeks of the harvest season baskets of apples have been displayed outside the Leeds City Mission (LCM) Compassion Centre in Mistress Lane.

Readers of the West Leeds Dispatch heard about the project through an article last month.

Local residents with apple trees in their gardens, allotment holders, supporters who have foraged and hand picked from wild apple trees plus others have all combined together to produce an incredible grand total of 1,961 apples for use by the City Mission. 

The apples have been given away to local people wanting fresh fruit to eat or to make homemade healthy eating options such as apple pies, apple crumbles and apple sauce.

A steady stream of residents and shoppers have visited the City Mission premises diagonally opposite Armley Library. They have taken away supplies of apples to eat or use in their culinary endeavours.

Development Worker Andy Dalton explained that the project was an imaginative extension of its Food Bank run from the Compassion Centre. This usually supplies tins and packets of food to people in need. The huge donations of apples had extended the range to include fresh, healthy fruit to people on limited incomes.

He concluded: “We ran a trial apple project last year. However staff and volunteers have been absolutely astounded at the vast quantities of apples donated and distributed in the last four weeks. 

“The amount is double the number collected in 2025. A big thank you to everyone who has helped – including the West Leeds Dispatch – which has played an important role in publicising this enormously successful initiative.” 

Leeds City Mission is one of the oldest charities in Leeds being in continuous existence since 1837. It is a multi-church Christian agency which organises a number of projects from its premises in Mistress Lane helping people at the margins of life.