Government food parcels

I confirmed on the government Corona website that I was unable to get food deliveries. A week later a government food parcel was delivered. It contained fresh fruit and vegetables, some useful canned goods like tomato, beans, soup, pie, and dried pasta, a large loaf of bread and two litres of milk. I arranged via our local Covid support group for the food to be delivered to a local family who were struggling.

The following day I had an email from Tesco to say that I'm not on its priority list for deliveries. Id been unable to register with four local supermarkets but the government website works, it notified supermarkets I'm shielding.

I went back onto the government website and cancelled the food deliveries because I'm fortunate, I can afford to put a weekly order into tesco.

I've had texts from the government website asking me to confirm I don't need the deliveries. Someone from our local council phoned to check out I hadn't cancelled accidentally.

I'll continue to criticise Johnson for his support of the indefensible Cummings but - I will continue to praise the government for this provision of basic food parcels to people who need them.

If you don't need them, please donate the one you currently have and go onto the government covid side and cancel.

Sorry I should add silver surf that it isn't true that you will lose your priority slot if you cancel the government food parcel. They need to be kept for people who really need them.

I would love to have free parcels. I get absolutely nothing. I’ve recently retired after paying N.I. For 49 years. but Im a WASPIE. So I don’t get my pension yet. I’ve retired early because of ill health. I can’t afford delivery slots because where I am they all have a minimum order of £40.00 per slot. I can’t afford £40. a month on groceries let alone a week.
I’d use a defrosting loaf to make something else. I’m fortunate to the extent that I’ve retired from the nhs after many years of service and my local supermarket know. So they always let in me in first. All I can afford is usually reduced stuff which I make into soup. Send your parcels to me. I would be more than grateful. I’m usually lucky if I can afford £10 a week.

Beloved and I are both classed as vulnerable so we receive 2 food boxes.

Because of content duplication, carrots, tomato soup etc, we take out anything we require and then offer the rest to 2 neighbours who don't qualify but could do with the help.

Anything left over will go to the local food bank when I'm allowed out.

Are you sure your local foodbank is closed? Ours is still taking donations as the need is particularly big at the moment. Do you use Facebook at all? We have a page for our area, if you have one too you could ask about drop off points. Or ask in the Post Office as they seem to know everything. Such to kind thought to share food you don't need.

I volunteer with our local foodbank and we have been offered some of these government food parcels by people who can't use them. The tinned goods and things like sugar are fine but the fresh food and bread cannot be used by us either. Also it seems that some of the things are out of date and we have to be quite strict about 'best before' dates. If you don't need the tinned stuff put it in your local foodbank collection point and it will be very welcome

GrannyGrumps:
We are two and we find the minimum shop difficult too but, and this isn't a stealth boast, we have some savings which we can dip into so have been solving the minimum shop three ways:
1. adding things to the order for a neighbour with a disabled adult son and
2. buying long term non-perishables
3. paying the financial penalty for going below the minimum

We can’t grow our own fresh vegetables or fruits or keep a cow or have a flour mill for bread so are sort of turning into hoarders of stuff for when it is all over.

But who knows when that will be?

Food banks are open and desperate For donations. I’m sure you can find a local one and someone to collect them so they are put to use. My cousin donates theirs to the food bank where it is gratefully received.

I had someone arrive with a food parcel and declined it mentioning I just wanted a supermarket regular delivery slot. She gave me a council phone number to ring. Two days later they just left a box of food on my doorstep without knocking. Was there hours before a neighbour knocked and told me. Contents was a bit odd. Giant tin of apricots halves!
Rang number given to say parcels not needed was told to go back on government website and change my response to help not wanted.
Was offered a regular slot by Asda a couple of weeks later.
Community support group rang to check whether I still wanted the boxes and tried to talk me into having them. Was good to see the volunteers being so helpful to those having to shield.
I passed most of the box onto someone I knew would need them.
Fed up of grandeur being used for political nitpicking. for every Cummings that floors a rule for childcare reasons there is a Labour UP Stephen Kinnock flouting rules, also driving hundreds of miles, just to visit his daddy! Where's the leftie hysterics for that?

Gransnet not Grandeur!!

Silversurf, you have been misinformed, you can cancel them on the gov.UK sit and keep your priority shopping slot. I have, I got one more delivery and explained to the driver and asked him if he could give it to someone else and he did. I felt bad having them when others are struggling.

Ah, I understand now. A good idea to hand them over to foodbanks if they're not needed.

I knew nothing about anything you see, which I suppose I ought to be thankful for, which I am, being able to nip to local shops now and again and my neighbour getting stuff from Morrisons as she drives. I thank myself lucky not to be in a shielded situation.

I opted out, was quite easy and still get my priority slot at the supermarket, I'm South East, UK. I just informed them that although I was shielding, I didn't require the items and would rather it go to someone who really needed it, our local council were very greatful for this, as so many families are struggling right now

Our first food parcel had a giant tin of peaches and a giant tin of butter beans! The rest was quite good, although there was nothing perishable so no spread for the bread. We tried to cancel the second delivery on the Government website as we’d got Tesco deliveries then, but maybe too late as it still arrived. I caught the driver to cancel the third and he stopped the rest.

We didn’t need much of the food so have put it to one side for when we can get it to the food bank.

It depends what box you tick on the registration form for the clinically extremely vulnerable. If you tick that you are unable to access shops for food, medication etc you'll get a box, but if you tick that you have have friend/family etc who can get food etc for you you don't. We had a box for 4 weeks then got a letter to say we'd told them we didn't need a food box ( we hadn't, but had updated the form to say we now were able to get food etc) so the box was stopped! We were offered priority slots with 4 supermarkets! Asked local food bank if they could come and collect the items we didn't want, but were told they couldn't, so extra food still in cupboard under stairs. So it will have to wait until 30th June when we can stop shielding before anyone else can make use of it.I was quite impressed with the contents though I expect it would have got a bit boring having soup and pasta every week!

We get a box every week as we are both shielding, live quite isolated and have no family or neighbours who could shop for us. Also only have one supermarket in the village and it’s impossible to get a slot and I don’t shop online anyway. We don’t use everything that’s in the box, but do use most of it. What we haven’t used when lockdown is over will all be passed on to the food bank so nothing will go to waste.

My daughter and husband signed up, as he is classed as vulnerable. They have received about four boxes but unfortunately, every box contained mostly the same things. They now have eight tins of tomato soup, six jars of Dolmio pasta sauce, four tins of marrow fat peas and many more repetitions . They decided to cancel as there were few meal options in the boxes. So sad, as they really need help. Had no income for ten weeks.
Other areas have much better choices and a bit of variety.

well maybe it will swing too much the other way, as i have just read that people are being taken off shielded list. and lose boxes.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/27/phone-texts-notify-cancer-transplant-and-asthma-patients-they-are-off-shielding-list

Grannygrumps1,
sorry to hear you are struggling. just wondering, have you tried contacting any local support groups, sometimes they are actually looking for people to help.
i heard of one where a school was preparing packed lunches and couldn't find enough needy people to deliver them to. they had volunteer drivers waiting to do so.
i know it varies in each area, and is rather hit and miss.
are you able to apply for universal credit/ sick benefit/ attendance allowance, or something, until you can get SRP.

My hubby is in the Vulnerable category, and we did get food parcels. We both have diabetes and most of the tinned goods were things we couldn't eat (3 tins of Tomato Soup for instance, and a box of instant Golden Syrup flavour porridge). However, I went on line (as instructed in the letter that comes with the food parcel and cancelled the delivery. After receiving the first box, we had a phone call asking if we needed a Volunteer to shop for us, and one was appointed. I've never managed to get online deliveries, but as we have a Volunteer who shops for us weekly - we haven't had a lot of trouble. Yes, there have been plenty of weeks when we didn't get exactly what we wanted, but we haven't starved! My understanding is that Doctors specify the Vulnerability status of their patients and this triggers the listing. If you get a letter from the Government stating that you are classed as "Extremely Vulnerable" - this specifies that you need to stay indoors and "isolate", and gives you a date on which it is safe for you to resume your usual activities (within the confines of the Rules), provided of course, that neither you, nor anyone in your household has Covid symptoms at that time!

You can stop the parcel and carry on with with your deliveries because a Friend of mine has just done it. It’s ludicrous to suggest the government is punishing you for saying No to their parcel. Get tough!

My friend who received these weekly food parcels but didn’t want them contacted her local food bank who were delighted to collect them She had a weekly Waitrose delivery .

I work on a Shielding helpline and you don’t lose your priority shopping slot if you cancel food parcels. The public are asked to try refusing delivery - if they see the delivery person, de-registering more than once ( a faff, but it only takes minutes),donate to a food bank (many food banks will collect if you contact them) or just use the contents if all else fails. We offer vegetarian boxes and for those on medically restricted diets. What we don’t and can’t do, is cater to people’s personal food preferences. The number of people receiving these boxes nationwide is huge so it’s inevitable that it won’t be perfect all the time. Many councils also offer an emergency helpline if your food parcel does not arrive and you are short of food.

It sounds as though there is something of a postcode lottery regarding the food parcels. The posts on here show different experiences.

I suspect that everyone who has received a parcel is appreciative of the time and effort put in by the volunteers, the suppliers and the organisers.

It’s almost inevitable that hiccups will happen (e.g. some drivers agreeing to take back unwanted food boxes while my brother was told it was against the rules) but it’s so amazing that it was all put in place so quickly.

Tonight's “Clap for ....” from me is, as ever, mainly for front liners but also for the people behind all the unseen vital support. A final Thank You