
"What you are doing is great. I have possibly lost my job and my partner has been furloughed due to the pandemic. A gesture like this means so much to families like ours."
Across the country, thousands of families have struggled to make ends meet and gone hungry during the Covid-19 crisis. Unprecedented numbers of people have turned to food banks for support.
The SVP has supported vulnerable people like Sara and their families, who have found themselves unable to put food on the table, with emergency food parcels and other essential supplies through our ‘Knock and Drop’ service.
'Knock and Drop' volunteers collect food and fresh produce from local food banks and deliver the parcels to isolated and housebound people in their area, sometimes staying for a socially distanced friendly chat as well.
For example, in Newmarket, Suffolk, the number of families supported by the local SVP group and its partners increased from just 13 families in the first week of lockdown to 82, including 213 children and 128 adults. Boxes of food and essential items are delivered to each family once a week by a team of 18 SVP volunteers from churches in the town.