When the Coronavirus first hit China, an astute coordinator from Blackthorn, Surrey anticipated it would spread further afield, as the stories of infections spread and reset his Neighbourhood Watch group which covers over 50 homes, into a self help group.
They hand delivered flyers to those not on email circulation lists to join our self help group and very soon everyone joined in. It allowed them to quickly identify vulnerable residents and set them up with neighbours to get shopping and medicine, always with my email address as a contact point if they needed anything - even just a chat.
5 residents agreed to get shopping and collect medicines, and a daily email to everyone where we shared information on home delivery services. This proved so successful that one local firm that delivers fresh produce, a garden centre in a previous life, now has regular deliveries to our road. We are all supporting local businesses and share information with each other.
By communicating more with each other, we were able to help a neighbour find her lost cat within minutes of being alerted that it had gone missing.
A resident lives on her own and in the early days of lockdown was running out of basics and they circulated her short shopping list. She had asked others as well and guess what - she ended up with her shopping list bought for her twice by noon the same day. She thought it was so funny and loved meeting her new shoppers - not sure how long it took her to drink 4 pints of milk though!