Wednesday 20th May is the #BigHousingThankYou, a day dedicated to celebrating frontline housing workers who have been the invisible heroes of the country’s Covid-19 battle. We're sharing some of the amazing work that's been going on at NPH to support our residents.
We recently caught up with Claire and Kay, who have been doing a wonderful job of managing our food bank. Here's what they had to say about their experiences during lockdown:
“Throughout lockdown, we’ve been managing the food bank and making sure those tenants referred to us to receive a food parcel get them quickly. We’ve been keeping the foodbank stocked which has been a real challenge, especially at the start when many people were panic buying.
Lots of our residents needed support from the foodbank, which meant we were running out of food quickly. We had to take multiple trips to supermarkets each week, sometimes buying food for the foodbank and not for ourselves and our families. Panic buying meant that many of the basic items we need to keep the stores stock weren’t available; it was almost impossible to find pasta, UHT milk and tinned food. When we did find them, there were often limits on what we could buy, and although we carried our keyworker letter and explained we were stocking for a food bank, this didn’t stop the looks from other shoppers. They didn’t know what we were doing, and looked at us like we were being greedy. It made us feel really self-conscious at times.
We’ve been so lucky to have donations from local organisations, and from Morrison’s in Northampton. They’ve made weekly donations of the basics, but also thrown in some extras which has been amazing. It sounds strange to most people, but receiving fresh bread in a food parcel has been a real treat for those receiving parcels.
On top of being really busy with the foodbank, we’ve had worries about our own health and safety. We’ve been able to keep working as we don’t have any underlying health conditions and don’t live with anyone vulnerable to the virus, but we’ve still felt exposed. We were visiting busy, crowded supermarkets many times a week, and knew we could pick the virus up there. It was scary at first, as things changed so quickly and we realised how serious things were, but it does feel better now with social distancing rules.
The demand for our foodbank went has gone through the roof. As we were already set up and ready to go, we could support people straight away, and could get food parcels delivered the same day with the help of our wonderful trades colleagues. It felt like we were able to bridge the gap until other services were set up. We’re so grateful for the other services that have been set up across Northampton; the COVID-aid support groups, the local food banks, the volunteers, they’ve all done an amazing job at such short notice.
Although it’s been a really difficult situation for everyone, there are so many positives for us. As well as the amazing help we’ve had with stocking the foodbank, we’ve had lots of help from our trades colleagues who have delivered food parcels. Without them, we couldn’t have helped so many people, and they seem to have enjoyed doing it too. One said he’s worked with NPH for years and had never received so many ‘thank yous’ as he did the day he was delivering food! We've built a nice little community in the office, and we all look out for each other.
It has calmed down a little now, but we know that there could be a second spike and more people needing our help. We’re prepared for this whenever we might be needed, but it is nice to be able to work on our other jobs for a little while!”