As can be expected, the residents of Iden have responded magnificently to the Covid-19 crisis and we thank everyone who has offered so much help and support.
During the past few days the Iden Emergency Team under Jim and Gill Wood has gone into action with a hotline (01797 280208) and email address (ICE.idenparish@gmail.com) for anyone who wants support at home and to date has recruited almost 50 volunteers who will collect shopping and prescriptions or dog walk.
If anyone in Iden needs help, please make contact with the emergency team and they will do their best to see what they can do.
Iden Church is also keeping in touch with people, if you would like to receive its weekly newsletter please telephone Paula on 01797 280576.
As we would expect this community spirit has also been taken up by Chris and Sally and their hard working team at Iden Stores and Post Office who are offering a home delivery service to self-isolating customers in Iden.
This is a very busy service with deliveries being made on two days a week by volunteers. Please speak to the store on 01797 280201 for further details.
“Some weird and wonderful brands”
As you can imagine, it is getting increasingly difficult to restock the shelves and they are having to be creative in where they can source supplies. This is resulting in some weird and wonderful brands on the shelves, but for the moment they are maintaining stocks of staples like pasta, rice and tinned goods. So far, fresh produce is arriving daily, although bakery items are becoming more difficult.
They are encouraging customers to place orders by telephone so that they are ready in advance to minimise their interaction with the staff and they are delivering the orders for those in self-isolation.
Chris and Sally have said:
“The support from all of the association, the villagers and our regular customers from further afield has been fantastic and we have been inundated with offers to help with getting supplies to the vulnerable in the village. If there’s anything else that you can think of that we can do to help everyone during this difficult time, please let us know”.
The Stores are also somewhere where you can take your donations to Rye Food Bank and it is so heartening to see how well residents are contributing to this urgent appeal.
Iden is indeed so very fortunate to have Chris, Sally and their staff and of course, still to have a shop and Post Office!
Once again to many thanks to everyone. We are all here to help and support each other.
Image Credits: Michael Miller .
My grandparents Albert Hales and Marianne Hales who owned the Iden stores would be proud the way that Iden community is now being active in the present un certain time we have .
Ronald Hales-Reed