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

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! :mad:

Government attacked for ignoring expert advice on nutrition in food parcels

Defra and Public Health England denied responsibility for meals sent to children and vulnerable adults during the pandemic

The government has been accused of a “shocking” disregard for the basic nutrition of the most vulnerable members of society during the pandemic by a group of leading food policy academics.

A letter written by Tim Lang, professor of food policy at London’s City University, was sent early in the Covid-19 crisis to George Eustice, secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs, and Duncan Selbie, chief executive of Public Health England.
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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?
 
Simbindi said:
Does anyone use Ocado? If so, please can you give some feedback on how you have found them (in normal times).
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They have a broad range of stuff available. Some Waitrose soon to be replaced by M&S but also own brand and other suppliers. I can’t remember what the rules are on substitutes but i have in mind that you can’t set comments or choose no subs like on some others - might be wrong.

eta. Delivery cost is quite high. Annual delivery pass £100. Individual delivery fee £5 although I just looked and they have slots In my area tomorrow afternoon for free delivery.
I don’t think there’s a minimum order - wrong min order £40


Compared to Waitrose high minimum order £60 no delivery charge
Sainsbury’s min order £40 and some delivery charges as low as 50p £1.
 
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You can’t set it for no substitutions apparently. I think because they’re a warehouse rather than a shop they will be able to have better stock info so you can reject suggestions the day before when the order closes.

you can get the driver to take away substitutes apparently or if you’ve got stuff you don’t want they will refund the cost https://help.ocado.com/hc/en-us/articles/360007348757-Can-I-still-reject-substitutions-

eta obviously this works ok for healthies who aren’t too fussed about what type of bread or milk they get but not ideal you need to stick to certain products
 
Simbindi said:
Does anyone use Ocado? If so, please can you give some feedback on how you have found them (in normal times).
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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 :banghead: The ocado driver read it carefully & did as asked.
He shouted through the letterbox unfortunately, but thats another story:rolleyes:
 
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.
 
Simbindi said:
I may try a Waitrose delivery too over the summer
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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.
 
Simbindi said:
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.
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With two of use we find we can get it up to £60 easily with about 10 days gap between deliveries, and they don't charge for delivery, which makes quite a difference - the slots I wanted with Tesco were sometimes as much as £6, and the minimum order was £40. I can see for one person if you want fresh food, the minimum charge could be a problem if you're having to leave it several weeks between deliveries.

I don't know where our delivery comes from, but we usually have between 0 to 2 substitutions which are usually sensible. You get an email with the contents of your actual delivery listed including substitutions and things not available once they've packed it before it arrives, so you know exactly what's coming. If you haven't touched it, you can tell them you don't want the substitutions and they will take them back and refund the items.
 
Yes Waitrose were the first to offer me delivery slots after the reprioritsation to shielding people I suspect possibly seen as a bit too pricey if people used to shopping Asda/Tesco’s so not taken up by shielded and existing customers could be taken back on.
I’ve mainly been using Waitrose since May. I do like that you can set no subs for items and put comments which I use eg to say only substitute another paracetamol only product as I got sent one with caffeine in which is useless. I used to alternate mainly Sainsbury’s with every month a Waitrose to get the different stuff they have.
I was over ordering to have a weekly Waitrose so now do fortnightly and alternate with a farm shop fruit and veg collection. All meat fish milk goes in the freezer to reduce waste so that works ok. Can only get Sainsbury’s a couple of days ahead if there are any slots so I’m not relying on them any more. I found they had cut back what you can get online anyway.
 
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!
 
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