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

Oh dear, @Wonko, what a palaver for no helpful change.

 

This is a link for people who prefer meat that comes from farms with the highest husbandry standards. Coombe Farm in Somerset offers a range of organic meats, along with lots of other items including bones for stock, bone broth, organic pies, organic store cupboard items, some organic ready meals etc.

https://www.coombefarmorganic.co.uk/

Some items arrive frozen although most meat is fresh. There is a £40 minimum order plus a charge of £5 towards the courier costs and packaging (not bad for delivery of frozen and chilled items).

I haven't used them myself, I just wanted to add the link for others who may be interested.

 

@Wonko I think you might find this interesting!

Government attacked for ignoring expert advice on nutrition in food parcels

 

Interesting. I posted comments to DEFRA about the poor nutritional value of the free food parcel contents in response to their online survey early on in the programme.

 

erm...

Shielding may well be ending

In England there are reported to be 2.2 million, on the governments shielding list, people shielding

In England the government has issued 3 million food parcels, according to Matt Hancock the Heath Minister, to these 2.2 million people.

Who have been shielding since the 23rd of March (so over 12 weeks - temporal maths not good, but good enough for the next bit).

The food parcels are for one week.

So 12 (weeks) * 2.2. million = 26 million food parcels, not 3 million

The 2.2 million are people who are on 'the list', known to the government, and do not include people who have chosen to shield, as these are probably largely unknown to the government.

So take up has been 'low' then - they're not hitting their target market.

Or constant 'technical' muck ups, such as the ones that have prevented all but 4 of my food parcels from arriving are common.

Why has no one from the press/media noticed this apparent disconnect in the figures?

 

Yes, the people I know who were shielding donated a lot of their food parcel to the local food bank.

Food parcels are supposed to be discontinued at the end of July.

 

Does anyone use Ocado? If so, please can you give some feedback on how you have found them (in normal times).

 

The are more expensive where I live - £6.99 for every slot. I was wondering what experience people have of substitutions, I wouldn't want any.

 

I found them the best on subs. Their stuff is picked/delivered from warehouse rather than a store so in my experience subs are rare because you can see the stock level when doing the order & this isnt in competition with shoppers in store between the time you place order & it being picked - so once it's in your basket electronically it's 'off the shelf' so to speak.
To be honest if i could afford it i'd never use any other supermarket because they have a huge range & they have more 'specialist' itmes - organic/allergy related/vegan/high end etc, and the website is the easiest/fastest/best.

IT's true that you cant set what sub you would prefer for each item like you can at tesco, but in my exp the pickers never bothered to read it anyway so a waste of tiem. I have had the odd sub from ocado, but it was rare and never stupid.

I know in some areas tesco & morrisons are also warehouse based, morrisons in my area used to be warehouse based & it was amazing - i think i went a whole yr of weekly deliveries & got 3 subs, all sensible & useable, then they went over to being store based & it all changed & is just as unreliable as asda/tesco, ie pretty crap - in my area at least. That was all prior to the pandemic of course, i have only been able to get one deliver from ocado during it which still had only 1 sub but i couldnt get on priority list so gave up trying with them.

FYI i also find ocado drivers to be the most helpful & the only ones who bother to read the delivery instructions - mine are quite complicated and the drivers just dont bother to read them it's a battle out of the window every week The ocado driver read it carefully & did as asked.
He shouted through the letterbox unfortunately, but thats another story

 

It seems it will be worth keeping a regular (i.e. monthly) order with a standard supermarket then, in case a second wave hits. I was struck with the choice of Ocado too, particularly the organic range, especially as in my part of Somerset the regular supermarkets don't have much.

I may try a Waitrose delivery too over the summer as they offer a lot of organic items. However, I'm not sure if everything would turn up from them as the nearest store isn't large. Does anyone know whether it's different online with them (i.e. do their items come from a warehouse)? Obviously if they weren't splitting from Ocado then I would be able to plan on getting the Waitrose brand organic items from Ocado, but that is due to change in September anyway. The annoying thing with Waitrose is the £60 minimum order. I hope they change that when they start doing more of their own online deliveries.

 

Good luck with that! They wouldn't take me on as I wasn't in the governments list of vulnerable people despite me being 71 and OH is 74. And to compound my fury they emailed me THREE times to tell me, over 3 weeks. Basically the message was that unless you were a previous customer or on the government List they wouldn't deliver to you.

I know lockdown is now over, but it seems just as many people are ordering online. As people go back to work they'll want to order online. Elderly, sick and disabled will want to continue ordering online as they don't trust the shops and don't want to use public transport.

 

Waitrose now has slots in my area for the 2nd week of their 2 week calendar. If I do order from them then later in the summer I would ask them to register me as vulnerable (as I'd then be an 'existing customer').

 

In my area there are now priority slots available most days with Tesco and plenty of fixed slots available in the 4th week, but none in weeks 1-3. The 4th week's fixed slots are only open to priority pass customers though.

 

Thanks for the info about Ocado - I'd always assumed they did only Waitrose, and nothing else. Will have a look at them sometime.

 

Tesco have changed their delivery charge in my area from the beginning of August. From then on the slots are all £4.50, regardless of the time or the day. They have also put up the charge for priority slots (for the vulnerable) from £2.00 to £4.50, even though you can only specify an 8 hour time slot for these ones!