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

I will probably end up having to speak them at some point. I will try to get my mum to speak on my behalf and I’ll have to give authorisation.

I can manage phone calls with pharmacists and doctors if I’m well rested, have had time to prepare (written notes, know what is going to be talking about in advance etc, it’s about something I am calling about), but when other people decide to call me , and I don’t even know what they want to talk about, or what I will respond to such questions, or what time , it’s too much.

 

I take the view that if it's that important then they will write a letter to me. I suspect they are having a drive to reduce the number of free food parcels they are providing (whether centrally or via the local council). I would be very careful about agreeing to speak to them yourself, or even allowing your mum to unless she is well prepared. Also be aware that they will probably be following a script and unable to answer any questions that go outside that.

 

Why do you say so? Because they might try to find a reason to stop the food parcels..?

 

Yes. Because they may be fishing for information to tick the box that you are now getting the all the support you require

Edit (lost internet connection...) and because they may try to get you to accept a NHS Responder volunteer to meet your shopping needs.

 

Mine appear to have stopped - no idea why, I've had nothing to say they would be stopping, or any other communication with them - last Fridays just didn't turn up.

Given the extremely low quality of the contents, and their unsuitability as a diet for a diabetic, I'm not currently inclined to pursue the matter.

 

If you've been getting your food parcel from the Local Council due to your dietary requirements then you won't have seen the 2 letters I received with my last food parcel (there's almost no meat so it wasn't worth the hassle for me to contact my LA for a vegetarian option). These letters are what alerted me to the drive to reduce the number of people receiving these free government food parcels.

 

Worth seeing if you do get one tomorrow. If you do then maybe the last one was nicked. If you don't then you can assume the support is being withdrawn.

 

For members here who haven't been able to create a mental image of the typical standard 'shielded group' food parcel, I found an image online:





This is roughly what I have received each week, for the last 4 weeks (minus the carton of juice and the onion, I've only received these items once).

 

Now try and figure out how to make a weeks worth of healthy meals from just what you see in the picture

These food parcels are after all intended for people with health issues, significant health issues.

Intended for people who should eat healthily.

I couldn't.

Then try and figure out how to do it if you're diabetic and not supposed to eat simple carbs (i.e. white bread, white pasta, white potatoes, processed food) more than occasionally i.e. not as a diet, just the occasional meal.

ETA - Baxters tomato soup has a metalic taste (probably the result of putting a tomato based product in an unlined metal tin), with an overtone of very, very, overcooked pasta. This can be removed with the addition of a small amount (4-5 leaves) of chopped parsley - turning it from inedible to edible (but still not as good as sainsburies 50p a tin tomato soup).

 

If local charities have been able to organise redistribution of both fresh and ambient food that arises from the over-supply of the food/supermarket industry, why has it been beyond the wit of government to organise decent food parcels for the most clinically vulnerable?

https://fareshare.org.uk/news-media...orth-of-food-to-uk-charities-fighting-hunger/

I am wondering whether I may have got a better food parcel from the Local Authority now - one that wasn't made up of 50% tomato based products and highly refined white carbohydrate. Giving government contracts to private business does seem to result in poor outcomes in these times.

 

https://www.marksandspencer.com/l/gifts/food-boxes#intid=FTO_dlp_hero_050520_1_img_food boxes

M&S are now doing food boxes including boxes with ready meals - so not just fruit, veg anymore.

they have a traditional foods ready meals box for £40 and an Indian favourites one for £35.

It’s a shame they don’t have a veggie one yet. Also no desserts or sweet things which in my opinion is the best thing about M&S.

Edit also a gluten free box.

 

Agreed! There is a 24 hour BP garage with a M&S ministore near me (well 6 miles away but no traffic lights on the way). I've gone through phases of buying their ready meals when on offer, but very quickly get fed up with them. They don't have enough veg in them and are also very salty. For example if I make chilli, curry or lasagne at home I add lots of different veg to the recipe, it tastes nicer and is healthier. But store bought version don't do this.

Edit: I actually prefer Sainsbury's ready meals (especially their taste the difference range) over the M&S ones. The latter don't seem to be what they were a decade or so ago.

 

For some reason I keep recently getting adverts for make-it-at-home food kit deliveries. I would share them but they all seem to be London related & not sure if anyone else here lives there. I’ve seen so far, pizza and pasta kits from family run Italian restaurants, Sicilian supper club (which looks amazing), Sicilian cakes, doughnut and doughnut frosting kits, and cookie + cookie dough kits.

I think it’s nice that restaurants are doing this more now.. just hope they carry this on after Covid too as one thing I miss so much about being ill is not being able to go to most of the restaurants I used to go to..

 

OK folks, this isn't about getting food, but there have been a few posts about getting sanitizer as well as food so this seemed a reasonable place to put it?

Last couple of years OH has given me a couple of bottles of expensive gin (Warner's) for my birthday. So I joined their email List, as one does! Had an email last week offering gel hand sanitizer. 80% ABV. (I'm guessing that's Alcohol By Volume)

They use the early stuff that comes off the still, which is full of nasty stuff that you can't drink, but which is ideal to make sanitizer with. I've seen a number of distilleries are making hand sanitizer, so if this one is sold out it might be worth taking a look at other small distilleries.

Offer is for 6 bottles 500ml for £28 plus P&P. Postage free if order over £30, so I ordered another Honey Gin while I was at it. Free sample bottle of elderflower gin too, while stocks last.

https://www.warnersdistillery.com/products/6-pack-of-500ml-hand-sanitiser

ETA will let you know what it's like when it arrives. The sanitizer, that is, not the Honey Bee Gin, which I already know is fab!

 

It seems, despite all evidence being to the contrary, that I am still on the shielding list.

I just had 2 phone calls from the shielding service, who asked if I was happy with the food boxes, and seemed very surprised when I told them that they had just stopped a few weeks ago, with no notice.

They then cut me off.

...and rang me back blaming a technical issue

and asked me if I wanted them reinstating, to which I replied no, as the contents did not match what they were supposed to be, that they were not a complete emergency food source for a week for one person - I gave the example of the only meat content being one tin of fray bentos 'chicken' meatballs - meant as meat for my main meal, for 7 days

One tin (of 14% chicken products - 54g of reclaimed 'protein').

For a weeks worth of main meals.

He then said he would escalate the matter up to his supervisor, to which I said there was no point, they were what they were, but that as a diabetic, who was classified as being chronically ill, or they wouldn't be calling me, or have supplied the food boxes that they did, they were just not suitable as an 'only' supply of food.

At some point during that I was put on hold, and then cut off.

So they both claim not to know I was no longer receiving food boxes, and weren't interested in my comments on the contents - the alleged reason for their call(s)

Yet another attempt to get 'satisfaction' information from end 'users' that isn't interested in anything but positives.

 

Everfield Organics deliver nationwide, next day with DPD. They now have a pretty good range of produce, including dairy, bread, meats, flours and store cupboard items:

https://www.eversfieldorganic.co.uk/

I may put in an order with them so that I am considered an 'existing customer' as I think it is wise to have a range of options should the UK be hit with a second wave and further lockdowns.

 

Oh wow they have semi skimmed milk made from Jersey milk! That looks delicious.

On a similar note Abel and Cole are now open to new customers again. Abel and Cole was so helpful during lockdown at the beginning as I didn’t get priority access to other supermarkets for quite some time. So we still got our milk, some ready meals and staples like my yoghurts every week as a standing order (especially helpful for us as no new order needs to be put in each time, could just be amended quickly or go through as a recurring order).

 

Unfortunately Abel and Cole don't deliver in my area, they seem to be London based and serve the South of the country (not the South West). Riverford milk is lovely, organic and fresh from the Devon farm, but not from Jersey cows. I think Riverford are trying to increase their range again, but they've had to restrict their offerings to cope with the present conditions.

I'm now getting a weekly delivery from Riverford and barely buying anything from regular supermarkets (except toiletries and a few staples).

 

I received another phone call from the shielding people the day after the ones mentioned above.

It was much longer, and I had a chance to explain the unsuitability of the standard box for a diabetic.

He decided that I would receive food boxes (he didn't ask, he just announced that I would receive them and apologised for them stopping). I am on the shielding list, and always have been (he said that I was on the list 3 times during the 14 minute call), and as that the existing box, and my being unable to ring the council to ask for more suitable food, would mean that I would be forced out to get food, that I should receive a box suitable for a diabetic.

This morning that box turned up.

It is the same thing as a standard box, with no non trivial differences (e.g. custard creams instead of digestives, passata instead of pasta sauce - still chocablock with low quality white carbs as the main calorie source).

This time it came in a banana box, and was helpfully left with a defrosting loaf of bread on top of the toilet roll.

This time it contained a list of categories (I should receive at least one item from each category), their options for each category, etc.

Surprisingly tins of actual meat are the main option in that category (tinned meat), I have never received a tin of actual meat, only fray bentos processed stuff (pie inna tin, 'meat'balls). This time I got a tin of beef soup with white gunk on top that they, apparently with no sense of irony, call a steak pie.

It seems that a tin of veg is mandatory, I have never received one (it seems that fresh cabbage is an option in this category. which I have also never received. I have never received anything in this category at all (although I have received fresh carrots these are in a different category - fresh veg).

I could go on.....but you may get the picture - talking to people, answering the questions which they have deliberately called to ask my opinion on - is pointless.