Covid-19 Isolation Support Thread

Sayschezza

BTW we have to make our own coffee

oceanspirit

Redcross, I think it's over 70s and vulnerable so if I were you I would go in that slot anyway.  The most important thing for you to do to protect your husband is to keep yourself safe.

Jirine

I just wanted to share that I've managed to order my grandmother a Morrison's food box, which is due to be delivered tomorrow by dpd, four days after booking the slot. I did have to keep checking back over a few days, but I've had more luck with that than getting her a slot through any of the others. The food boxes are a bit different as you can't choose what you get, but it seems promising all the same. They have a vegetarian box and a meat box. 

Sorry if this already came up! I'm not quite used to the search function, but couldn't see it mentioned in recent pages here. 

I've not posted enough to submit a link but they're called 'Morrison's Food Boxes' if you google, they're £35 inc delivery, and they should be basics like tinned soup, pasta and sauce, bread, milk, eggs, veg etc. 

unrecordings

Jirine said:

I just wanted to share that I've managed to order my grandmother a Morrison's food box, which is due to be delivered tomorrow by dpd, four days after booking the slot. I did have to keep checking back over a few days, but I've had more luck with that than getting her a slot through any of the others. The food boxes are a bit different as you can't choose what you get, but it seems promising all the same. They have a vegetarian box and a meat box. 

Sorry if this already came up! I'm not quite used to the search function, but couldn't see it mentioned in recent pages here. 

I've not posted enough to submit a link but they're called 'Morrison's Food Boxes' if you google, they're £35 inc delivery, and they should be basics like tinned soup, pasta and sauce, bread, milk, eggs, veg etc. 

Could this be what you were trying to link to ?
https://www.morrisons.com/food-boxes/

In terms of duplicating important info - better twice thsn not at all IMHO

Jirine

Yes exactly that, thanks @unrecordings ! 

herbily

Miro, do you know where your nearest church is? Our local one has been organising food deliveries and volunteers to go shopping - you don't need to belong to that church to ask for help.

BooJewels

In respect of earlier discussions about the food boxes being delivered to people on the 'extremely vulnerable' register, this story on the BBC web site popped up in my husband's news feed this afternoon.  It looks - at least from this story - like they must be able to identify single people on the list (not sure how they know if you've no friends), as they're only actually delivering to 50,000 of the 1.5m on the list. 

I can certainly understand the rationale of this, but we've made the decision that the only way to properly protect my husband is if I don't go out either - because if I do, I have to then isolate myself, within the house, apart from him - eating separately etc.  When you're being asked to stay indoors for 12 weeks, to then add further risk by some members of the household actually going outside and the further pressure of living very oddly (not that we have space and amenities to do so) is a big ask.  We would prefer to live as normally as possible and tough it out together and keep the risk to minimal.  Not to mention that I actually have to help my husband at close quarters for some of his medical and practical needs, so isolating wouldn't be possible as thoroughly as it should be.

I think we'll actually be okay, as long as I can get shopping slots on-line, supplemented by local farm shops and delivery services etc. (need to sort medication yet), but there must be many more than 50,000 who are facing difficulty in getting food and supplies - not everyone can use technology to place their own orders etc.

Miró

herbily said:

Miro, do you know where your nearest church is? Our local one has been organising food deliveries and volunteers to go shopping - you don't need to belong to that church to ask for help.

Sorry for not responding sooner everyone...my notifications for the thread seem to have stopped working.

I have been in touch with various volunteer agencies and received promises of 'someone will get back to you'.....still waiting!  I thought I had an Asda home delivery slot for after Easter nabbed this morning but by the time I had chosen my shopping I got a message to say I was timed out and all the slots had then been taken.  

herbily I have found a local church that is delivering a hot meal twice a week along with a small selection of groceries but it appears to be for those with financial problems and I would hate to think I was depriving someone in desperate financial need!

TBH I feel despondent and quite humiliated at having to seek help like this .... I will keep trying all the home delivery supermarkets each morning and if nothing works I am resigned to breaking my voluntary isolation in order to do a 'Supermarket Dash'

BooJewels

@Miró - I  had 3 attempts before I secured a delivery slot (was originally going for click and collect, as a compromise) so don't give up - I think they've reduced the time span for slots to 2 weeks, so you just need to be persistent and keep trying. Asda give you a decent timeframe to complete the order, but I found it was the checkout/payment process that snagged it up.  I placed a basic order first to secure the slot, then went back and added to it - although that did double the time I spent trying to 'pay'.

It might also be worth considering click and collect (as opposed to going in to shop yourself) as this must reduce your exposure to other people, if you can do so.  That would be preferable to me as a compromise.

suki1964

Miro, Join Next-door and put out a request for help if there isn't a community group you can find via facebook

If you feel you can face going to the shops, I went to Tesco today and it was a pure pleasure. Queue outside in marked out spaces, trolly sanitised before handed to you, strict observance of one in and one out - I think they have a limit of 50 in store ( well our medium sized store ) one way around the store and follow the markings to keep spaced out. Then join one queue, with its spacings, and directed one at a time to the few check outs that were open ( every other one )

Plenty of fresh produce, milk, bread, meat etc. Short on some store cupboard items, or little choice, their own baked beans, no Heinz but totally able to get a weeks shop.

I went around 11;30 thinking I had missed the elders and that the mums would be home getting lunches, and other then the 10 min queue to get in, I was only in the store 10 mins, it was a good time for me to go