At Disability Partnership Calderdale we’ve received a number of calls and emails from people with disabilities expressing their concerns over shopping for food. In response, we have written to all our contacts in local government highlighting some key priorities that we think need addressing.
We’ve printed the contents of the letter below. If you have an established contact with a local representative of local government or local council, we’d love you to join us in this call for action – feel free to use the letter as a template:
TEMPLATE LETTER/EMAIL
Dear….
I am writing to you from the charity Disability Partnership Calderdale. We have very strong evidence that there are real concerns amongst some of society’s most vulnerable people about obtaining food shopping safely during the current crisis.
Many of our members are highly vulnerable and from the emails and phone calls we have been receiving from them, obtaining their weekly shopping is far and away their biggest worry at the moment. Many do not have internet access and feel very isolated.
I would urge you to do the following:
1/ Collate, share and make widely available a list of the many volunteer support groups that have sprundup in recent weeks in Calderdale (we,like many charities have a range of channels including printed newsletters, to pass this info onwards).
2/ Set up a helpline for the most isolated and vulnerable to register for support and to access details of their local volunteer support groups
3/ Work with local food outlets (supermarkets, farm shops etc) to create a directory of food delivery services in Calderdale and again make this as widely available and accessible as possible.
4/ Leaflet the above information to all vulnerable residents of Calderdale
Regards
Name Name
Organisation Name
Telephone number
