‘THE VULNERABLE NEED FOOD – AND COMPANY’
Michelle Husserl, 33, co-founded Community Care London to provide safe door-to-door deliveries and friendship to anyone feeling isolated during this time. The day lockdown was announced I closed my bakery, Baketique in west London, logged on to the Next Door app, which connects you with people in your area, and searched to see if anyone needed help. I found five other women looking to do the same thing and, within 48 hours, we’d formed Community Care London. Without meeting, we arranged for flyers to be distributed so we could reach elderly, isolated or vulnerable people.
Within hours, hundreds of people got in touch about neighbours or desperate families who couldn’t feed themselves. Now we’ve built a brilliant network of volunteers across London, with 600 members in our Whatsapp group and much-needed donations.
One family I can’t stop thinking about are living on benefits after the mum lost her job because of lockdown. Then her husband caught Covid-19 and tragically died. Now the mum is sick and has three young children to take care of. I’m so glad we found her; we deliver hot meals and have arranged for volunteers to keep in touch with her by phone.
Another lady, who is 91, was terrified, alone and surviving on mouldy sandwiches. She hadn’t had a hot meal for three weeks – her carers seem to have abandoned her. I check on her regularly and she has three hot meals a day now. It was her birthday the other day and we brought her cake and balloons.
At the beginning, I felt overwhelmed by sadness. But now I feel positive thinking about how beautiful it has been to watch communities come together like this. communitycarelondon.com chdliving.co.uk/adopt-grandparent