Gratitude for food parcels – when they get through to vulnerable people
sir – Unable to arrange supermarket home delivery, I registered as a vulnerable person on the gov.uk site. I have just received my first box and can only say I am delighted with the contents: toilet rolls, shower gel, fresh fruit and potatoes, pasta, tinned goods and a lovely packet of fig roll biscuits.
I am humbled by the generosity shown to me at this difficult time and thank with all my heart those behind the scheme. I will cancel the box as soon as the supermarkets have the capacity to deliver to me regularly.
Marilyn Mclean
Brighouse, West Yorkshire
sir – The process of registering as old and vulnerable seems not to allow for someone over 70 who is the primary carer for a partner who fits the government criteria for food delivery.
For example, I was asked whether I had had a letter from the Government. Neither of us has received any message about my husband’s status, despite him having just had his chemotherapy halted because catching Covid-19 when attending hospital is deemed a greater risk for him than his advanced cancer. His doctors have put us both in complete lockdown for three months.
Yet Sainsbury’s registration process does not allow for this kind of information to be submitted and I therefore fear that my application for a delivery slot will be refused.
How many others are denied access to the support that the supermarkets say they have put in place, by inadequate processes such as this?
Rita Twiston Davies
Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire
sir – We are Sainsbury’s online customers, aged 78 and 74, both with underlying health problems. We have filled in the government forms and are Nectar customers, but have still to be contacted with a slot to order food to keep us going. We are running low on basics.
How do they access information to find us?
Christina Veats
Shrivenham, Oxfordshire
sir – My husband and I are 79 and 77, and still capable of driving to our local Morrisons to shop.
I went to Morrisons at 8am last Thursday and did not have to queue to get in or out. There was plenty of food on the shelves and when I left again at 8.30 there was still no queue of people waiting to get in.
My husband and I have had a good life, and travelled the world in our retirement. While we are in no hurry to depart, we hesitate to put anyone at risk on our behalf.
We are closely following the government distancing guidelines, but feel that shopping for ourselves frees up online delivery for those who really need it.
Sara Johnson
Bideford, Devon
sir – Would it not now be helpful if supermarkets were allowed to open for longer on Sundays, to reduce the pressure of numbers?
William Brooks
Bath