UK - Resources for help getting food during quarantine and other supermarket related problems

Was the text from superfood? Or the courier/Royal Mail? As courier texts usually don’t name the customer but companies we’ve bought from often do

 

I'm not sure if these have been posted anywhere but there are some replies now to the APPG letter on meresearch website.

This helpful one from Tesco:

 

One from Iceland:

 

and from M&S:

 

Also this today from Tesco on the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52211912

 

Iceland does indeed include a pop up asking if we’re vulnerable...
before guiding us to the no delivery slots page

or at least that has been my experience so far

 

Referring to my posts from yesterday about the mystery parcel that I was promised by text... What can I say?

I went and checked my order page on Amazon and there it was... I ordered two boxes of teabags ages ago, and because both my husband and I had ordered a few things since then the teabag order had slipped down the list and been completely forgotten. The text about the parcel had nothing to do with being vulnerable or not, and it wasn't a generic food parcel. It was just teabags...

I used to be able to get these specific teabags from Tesco but they stopped stocking them, so I decided to buy them online.

My memory sucks...

 

From Scotland's daily briefing 8th April, Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister said this:

'We don't want anybody to be falling through the net'

"Outside the shielded group, there is a bigger group of vulnerable people who are not necessarily in that category but still require assistance," says the first minister.

"They may be older people or have other health conditions that are not in the shielded group.

"Over the last few days we have been doing work to put in place a service for them, if they don't have friends or family that can help.

"We don't want anybody to be falling through the net."

Don't know any more details

 

Someone from my local ME group posted this online this afternoon - I've not tried it yet myself but apparently it does work:

 

Were they? My caree qualifies on that basis, but hasn't been notified of anything

My not-so-local Sainsbury's (which I visit because the local one is a no-no for various reasons I won't bother going into) let me down badly tonight. I had to queue so long I only got in maybe 15 minutes before it closed. So they announced the store was closing and would we all make our way to the tills. I went for the small self-service ones (2 tightly packed rows of 3, with 3 on one side and the central one on the other side deactivated), to leave the conveyor belts to the people with more shopping, put my stuff down to mark my place and then realised I hadn't got milk, which was just a few yards along the aisle. When I got back, I found some woman with a trolley had inserted herself in the queue in front of me - she went and grabbed the till at the far end, leaving me with the one closest to the queue.

I scanned my shopping, apart from one reduced item which the machine didn't want to scan, so I had to get a member of staff over to do it. He wasn't wearing gloves, and put his fingers all over the item while he was doing so, so I hope his hands were as clean as they should have been. Then in order to get everyone through as quickly as possible another staff member decided to activate the corresponding tills on the opposite row (think the "4" on standard dice), which I was reasonably fine with - it was possibly not quite 2 metres between each, but probably near enough if you weren't going to be there for long. Then she went and activated the two middle ones as well! So they now correspond to the "6" on a dice. 3 small till units right next to each other on each side: I was almost knocking heads with the woman at the adjacent till as she took her shopping out of the basket while I was putting my purchases into my bag. Social distancing? What's that?! I was appalled at the possible risk they were exposing their customers to. I only hope she (and I) didn't have the virus, as we were effectively sharing breathing space. Completely irresponsible.

 

Really? They are actually acknowledging people with ME? Is it just any contact phone number? Or a special one? I have no idea when I’ll be able into make the call but I really don’t want to be queuing for hours in a wrong phone queue. I’m currently psyching myself up for the 2-3 hour phone queue on Monday to ring in my prescription at my docs

If Tesco’s really are prioritising people with ME, I think they should automatically shoot to the top of the popularity contest above all others

 

It was all over the TV for about a week.

Those with some pre-existing conditions are 'vulnerable, and 'at risk' of more serious consequences requiring hospitalisation if they contact the virus, should remain inside for at least 12 weeks.

How do you tell if you're one of those people?

If you are offered a flu shot, says various governement people, and dragged in 'experts'..

They talked about virtually nothing else on bbc news24, and various sofas, for about a week.

 

I woke early this morning so decided o try it out and rang just gone 7am when I thought the lines might be quieter. I tried the normal contact number on their website but got a recorded message again and then cut off. I then found this number 0800 917 7359 on their website - they've set up a special helpline which is for people on the Govt list OR existing customers who can't safely shop in store.

I rang and after a 10 minute wait got through. I explained that I had a neurological condition and that I was reliant on home deliveries. The conversation was a bit muddled if I'm honest as my brain wasn't working properly so early in the morning. I also said I thought I was on the Govt list and the woman checked but said I wasn't. (She had got my name wrong though and later couldn't find my Tesco account either!). I then explained that on the Tesco website it says that they are prioritising vulnerable people who can't get to a store and she then said she was going to ask me some questions. From memory these were: Had I been a customer before 6th April? Do I normally shop in store? Did I have anyone to help with my shopping? She then said that I would be put on Tesco's priority list and that it would taken 24hrs for slots to appear in my account.

The delivery slots are not like normal ones - they give you an 8hr window and then on the day they text you a 1hr slot - a bit like DPD deliveries.

So Tesco aren't specifically prioritising people with ME just vulnerable people who can't get to a store and you don't have to be on the Govt list either to be able to get priority access! I think they may have redeemed themselves a bit!!

 

Thank you, that’s really helpful! Just need to be able to make that phone call now

 

Haven't seen the fact that there is now a countrywide shortage of flour mentioned; online there is some speculation that this is due to people doing a lot of homebaking at the moment.
Coronavirus: Flour mills working 'round the clock' to meet demand

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52212760

this will probably have a knock on effect on availability of bread and other baked goods.

eta: even wholesalers supplying to trade seem to be out of stock.

 

Oh my god, I’ve done it. I have no idea how but I actually made the call. That was excruciating. It’ll take 24 hours to kick in. He asked if I can get to a shop myself, if I have anyone at all to help etc. I’m so relieved this is one of the few supermarkets I’ve had a long term account with.

Very important to say you have zero help, at all in any form. He said he had to turn a lady down who was starving because she had someone popping in once every 3 weeks.

Thanks so much for the heads up @meg22

Talk about timing. My chest freezer has just arrived too. Downstairs. May not be as essential now. Though saying that Tesco’s is still fully booked it seems for next few weeks so my frozen meals arriving next week will still be useful.

When/if this crisis ends, I’ll donate the freezer to someone who needs it.

ETA: The Tesco’s member of staff I spoke to said he was working from home sitting on the couch in his pyjamas

 

Thanks for describing your experience of this service.

I signed up to the government list, and as previously discussed my daughter received a NHS shielding letter as my named carer. I have a delivery pass with Tesco (as the only supermarket in my area that delivers all of their in store items) but still haven't been recognised as requiring priority delivery. So I am going to ask my daughter to phone the telephone line on my behalf. I'll give an update when and if she succeeds!

 

Wow, that was good timing. I think someone’s looking over me today.

Ex arrived to help getting freezer up the stairs. It’s in huge polystyrene packaging and weighs a ton.

I literally have no idea how I would have helped him get it upstairs. It’s safe to say both me and the freezer would have been destroyed in the process.

I was standing at the top of the stairs and could hear him chatting to someone. It was a DPD driver. Who he knew and used to work with.

The DPD driver helped him carry it up and I shuffled it into my flat.

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

I just hope the freezer is okay, the delivery men delivered it upside down and then rolled it to upright position when they dropped it off.

I’m going to leave the freezer wrapped in the corridor for now before I start the fun of deciding where the hell to put it

 

If it's been rolled, as in not kept top side up, then it's probably a good idea to leave it for several hours/overnight/to the turn of the century (delete depending on how bored you are and/or how big the puddle of defrosted stuff is) once it's been unpacked and is position.

Leaving it to sit in the hall for several days before unpacking it doesn't count - it's time since it was last moved that counts

Or so everyone since the dawn of time keeps telling me.