King's Staff Supporting the Elderly and Vulnerable with Food Deliverie

April 20th 2020

Community Help - How King’s is serving in this time of crisis...

23^rd March 2020

King’s Bruton and the local Post Office at Church Bridge Stores have teamed up to provide food deliveries for 100 elderly people in the local area. Using our fleet of minibuses, King’s staff will work on a rota over the next few weeks to deliver food parcels to the elderly in Bruton, Cole, Pitcombe, Batcombe and Brewham. The back room in the Post Office has been cleared of wine and sweets and food boxes have been delivered and hosed down ready for packing. On Wednesday 25^th March at 9am, the King’s minibuses will be parked and ready for loading food outside the Post Office. King’s teachers will go out in pairs - one to drive and one to drop the food at front doors. There will not be the usual friendly chatter on the doorstep, instead, the elderly recipients will be phoned just as the minibus pulls up outside their home. More details in Wednesday’s King's Spirit.

24^th March 2020

King’s staff and local boys have been clearing the storage room in the Post Office ready for home delivery boxes for the elderly. Today, our largest minibus has been out to transport the food from a depot to the Post Office ready for our first deliveries at 9am on Wednesday. My thanks go out to the 15 local staff who have volunteered to drive the minibuses. The drivers not only need local knowledge, but also careful driving skills around the narrow country lanes. Even though it was a pain at the time, we’re now glad that the School made us do regular driving assessments and tests.

25^th March 2020

Food deliveries began in earnest this morning. Four school minibuses were filled with emergency stock for the elderly and those who are vulnerable. Aidan (Post Master) and Louis Corbin O'Grady (King’s Head of Cricket) packed the orders in the shop, and boxes were either delivered by hand, because they were nearby, or sent out in one of our minibuses to Cole, Brewham, Wyke or the East End of Bruton. Our drivers were King’s staff volunteers who worked in pairs: a driver in the front and deliverer in the back. There were a few hairy moments up narrow farm tracks and wrong postcodes, but we got there in the end. In our photo montage, you can see Mr Jeffrey loading a bus outside the post office, Prudence, who was the first recipient of a delivery in Bruton and a box of bread, milk and jam left on a doorstep in South Brewham. There was no lingering and we kept a clear distance or simply waved to the elderly as they waited inside their homes.

Tomorrow the sorting of food will take place in the King’s Dining Room where social distancing will be much easier. The empty freezers and fridges in the school kitchen will soon be filled for the cold storage of items for our next round on Friday and Saturday. Many thanks to our 21 staff who have volunteered for this essential work.

27^th March 2020

Working in conjunction with Bruton Post Office, tomorrow sees the second food drop to 103 elderly residents and those who cannot leave their homes due to illness. Up to 23 local King’s staff have volunteered for various roles which include driving buses, delivering the food to doorsteps and even travelling to the wholesale merchants to buy the food. Instead of the normal Saturday lunch, with 350 pupils eating spaghetti bolognaise and garlic bread, the dining room will be covered in grey boxes and then filled with pre-ordered provisions. These will then be loaded into the back of our minibuses. Staff will operate in a chain but the space will allow us to socially distance. The food boxes will also have a small King’s card to display in windows for future drops, because finding some of these remote locations with no numbers or accurate postcodes has been difficult. Armed with only an address saying ‘The Old Forge’ proved a challenge! School fridges and freezers will also be requisitioned for our biggest food drop yet.

30^th March 2020

Unlike the high risk ‘Operation Manna’ in April 1945, when the RAF dropped food to the starving in Western Holland before a truce, the food distribution from the King’s vehicles to the Bruton community is, by contrast, friendly and peaceful. Below we have photographs of Mr Howarth, History Teacher, unpacking boxes in Pitcombe, Archie, a L6th Form pupil from Blackford, in Bruton High Street and Mrs Bunday, our School Registrar, in Brue Avenue - all delivering food with a friendly smile and words of comfort. Louis Corbin O’Grady (Head of Cricket and Resident in Blackford) packed food bags for 5 hours and Mike Keogh (Librarian) monitored the door of the Post Office to ensure packers did not get in the way of shoppers. Many thanks to all our staff volunteers.

Another initiative to publicise is to galvanise all members of our community to help their vulnerable isolating neighbours. Encourage them to be part of a WhatsApp group or simply give them your telephone number. Help can come in the form of combating loneliness or picking up items they are missing from their larder. If you are not yet part of a support pod or would like to set one up in your area, please contact this email for an exemplar letter: [email protected].

31^st March 2020

New House Sunday Matron said ‘I am so proud of King’s delivering food. My husband is one of those isolating at the moment, and I am eternally grateful for the food deliveries. I was nearly in tears when I saw Mr Jeffrey with my order - it is such a lifeline.’
King’s has been asked by other shops in the High Street to help deliver goods as well as the Post Office. Today 8 staff took food to 40 elderly and infirm in Bruton. It has been great to see the King’s minibuses being used out and about in town and locals are grateful for the community spirit.

1^st April 2020

Today, Miss Checketts (Head of EAL) and Ms King (DDSL/English Teacher), Mr Hambleton (Head of English) and Mr Keogh (Librarian) took out 2 school minibuses for the deliveries to those people isolating in Bruton today. They said the delivery boxes are now getting heavier, as those who are unable to go shopping are running low on lots of food items. One delivery was to our retired librarian (in the picture) who still lives in the town. Good evening Mrs March and we’re glad you are keeping well.

2^nd April 2020

King’s staff were unknowingly snapped by Taylors of Bruton, a local bakery, and put on their Instagram. The photo was taken from an upstairs window as King’s staff loaded another school minibus for deliveries. This morning it was the turn of Mr Lowry (Designated Safeguarding Lead) and Mr Cupit (Deputy Head Academic) who took one bus whilst Mr and Mrs Bunday (Housemaster of Blackford and Registrar) took out a second bus for further rounds about the town. Tomorrow we look forward to dropping 25 food parcels to the elderly at Sexey’s Hospital in the High Street. This has been carefully co-ordinated with the Magister at Sexey’s Hospital. We are so pleased to be able to put our facilities to good use to help those really in need at the moment.

3^rd April 2020

Every Friday, from today, King’s will deliver food bags just to the elderly in the old alms-house, Sexey’s Hospital in Bruton. Established in 1630, it is a little younger than King’s. This is because the Post Office have now bought a delivery van. We are glad, however, we were able to help whilst the need was there. Well done to Archie who was in his sport kit at 9am. The face mask that Mrs Vigers-Belgeonne is wearing in the photo, was made by the cleaner in Wyndam, Sam Set - many thanks Sam. (Who has identified our old Office Manager who happened to be queuing at the PO when loading up? Best wishes to JLD.)

14^th April 2020

Every Friday, for the foreseeable future, King’s staff and OBs will be delivering food to the vulnerable at the Almshouse at Sexey’s Hospital. On Good Friday, Tom Deaney (Lyon House who left in 2013) and Emily Corrigan nee Deaney (Wellesley House who left in 2006) and currently Geography teacher and Assistant Head of Sixth Form, spent their morning delivering food and drink to their doorsteps.

20^th April 2020

Knowing how much schools are doing to support the pandemic, we were greatly honoured to have an article published by the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference about our food deliveries which you can read here. From the announced Lockdown on Monday 23^rd March, King’s staff have delivered 450 food parcels to date. These parcels were carried in our minibuses all through the Easter holidays to the elderly in Bruton and surrounding district. In conjunction with the Post Office, King’s staff are now delivering food every Friday morning to Sexey’s Hospital Alms-house in the High Street. There are 25 residents benefiting from this drop off. Hygiene is of great importance, so we are using face masks made by Sam Set (Wyndam cleaner) and plastic gloves (courtesy of the Science Department prep room).

Vera, an 87 year old resident said on Friday: