Over the past few days there have been horrendous stories of supermarket shelves being emptied by people stockpiling goods for the long haul that the coronavirus could become. This is definitely a society negative.
I prefer to concentrate on the positives rather than negatives and these are beginning to come through. To me stockpilers are beyond contempt, people who consider nobody other than themselves. Hopefully they are in a minority and that seems to be the case as Hethersett proves what a caring place it is.
Just this afternoon I was looking through Facebook and came across one of the best examples of good neighbourliness possible. Hethersett Community Store has been set-up to help the vulnerable. I can do no better than print their own words below:
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This is a non-profit scheme to help those in our community who cannot/must not visit shops due to the spread of Coronavirus.
The Primary method of ordering is online at https://www.hethersett.store.
All items are charged at the standard shop price and each order will incur a £1 delivery fee.
All payments will need to be made by card at the time of ordering (an email receipt will be provided. All card payments are processed by stripe and are PCI:Dss compliant). Deliveries will ONLY be made to your doorstep.
Products are supplied by The Hethersett Butchers Ltd and Park Drive Stores at the standard retail price and are subject to availability - no substitutions will be made. Items such as Pasta, Milk, Bread and toilet roll will be limited.
If you know someone who may need assistance then they can order between 10am and 2pm by calling 07391526947.
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The service is only designed for those in genuine need and is being led by parish councillor Andre Smith who will be making deliveries with his family.
Shortly after this I came across a post from Church Farm shop offering a similar service. Again I make no apologies for including the full text in order to help promote this service:
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Due to recent events affecting the community we have been working on ways to keep the village and the elderly fed and stocked.
We are now taking phone calls and emails with orders and delivering to the local community - Hethersett, Mulbarton and surrounding areas.
Payment must be received before delivery - we will be accepting card payments over the phone or BACS payment. At present, we are planning on turning around orders for the following day (excluding Saturdays and Sundays) - providing orders are received before 12pm. However, depending on demand we may need to look to do set rounds on set days so we will need to play this by how the situation evolves.
There will be a small delivery charge of £1 and a minimum spend of £15.
We may also look to leave your order in a ‘safe place’ at your address if this is a preferred option if you are self-isolating. You would also be able to collect from outside the shop if you are still happy to travel but would prefer not to come in.
As we work with many local suppliers - we are able to get most stock easily. Inc fresh bread, milk, flour, pasta, fresh fruit, veg, pies, meat and much more.
When placing orders, please state your full name, contact telephone number and full address including postcode. If there is any further information you think we may need, please specify.
💻 Email: [email protected]
☎️ Telephone: 01603 814151
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I firmly believe that as the situation deteriorates further, as it almost certainly will, there will be yet more examples of good neighbour initiatives in Hethersett. In my own road one of our wonderful neighbours is collecting everyone's contact numbers and offering support for anyone who needs it.
Each day we wake at the moment is likely to bring new problems but there is no doubt in my mind that Hethersett will rise to the challenge. I can't remember anything vaguely like this happening before. It's all a massive learning curve for us all and no time to practice anything with the village likely to go into some form of lockdown in the very near future.
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I do like to include some pictures with this blog and today we had a walk round the UEA Broad and coffee in the restaurant/cafe in the Sainsbury Centre.
I mentioned recently about finding my tiny DB Power action camera which literally fits into the palm of my hand. So I took this along and the photos at the top of the page and below were taken with it.