Thirty residents and staff of the special needs Langdon Community residential facility cleared the cemetery of St Margaret's Church in north Manchester and helped to paint the church outhouse.

Twenty Heaton Park synagogue members joined Langdon college students to wash cars in exchange for kosher food which was sent to needy families.

Volunteers from FZY, Habonim and Bnei Akiva cajoled shoppers at kosher outlets throughout the city to donate food items to the Gift charity.

Manchester Reform Synagogue congregant Rosemary Taylor organised an interfaith "shopathon" at south Manchester supermarkets. The shul's Jessel Golding put a team together for a clean up of the Jewish section of Southern Cemetery and other events were an afternoon of activities at Brookvale care home and a singalong with the choir at Heathlands Village. Helen Nelson co-ordinated Manchester Reform's Mitzvah Day programme.

In Leeds, MP Fabian Hamilton opened Mitzvah Day activities at the MAZ community centre in Moortown. Community organisations united to offer a programme ranging from a bone marrow donor drive to planting a herb garden. The Zone youth club launched its computer mentoring service, through which young people will coach elderly residents of Leeds Jewish Housing Association on personal computing and use of social media.

Food collections for Jewish causes were made at the Kosherie shop and mixed faith groups ran food drives for Help The Aged and the Leeds Refugee Council outside branches of Sainsbury's, Tesco and Marks & Spencer.

Merseyside Jewish Community Care teamed up with Gift and a dozen King David pupils to pack food parcels for elderly Jewish residents and wrap Christmas packages for Zoe's Place children's hospice. Gift's Jess Bernstein said the "students were inspired and ready to make a difference".