This week is the second week since the reversal of our delivery only policy, and people needing support from Rye Food Bank are now required to come to the Baptist Hall during opening hours to collect food.
But we have been contacted by many people who are worried about travelling away from their homes, due to fear of Covid-19, and it has been necessary to continue with some deliveries, especially to the outlying villages and to households where someone is sheltering, or too ill to travel anywhere.
Some clients are unable to get to Rye due to lack of money for travel. Also, if they do not have a car, bus services are still less frequent than they were.
Some need help with basic essentials
While the government has recently announced interventions to support jobs and targeted support for the hardest hit sectors, such as hospitality and tourism, and introduced measures to boost consumer spending in the form of VAT cuts and a 50% voucher for discount eating out in restaurants, many members of our local community remain unable to afford the basic essentials.
In Rye, we are pleased to see that the school meal vouchers will continue over the summer holidays. The package of support announced at the start of the crisis, in the form of the Jobs Retention Scheme, increases to Universal Credit, Local Housing Allowance, and the suspension of deductions and sanctions represented a significant strengthening of the state safety net.
Recent announcements about new funding for local welfare assistance and free school meals over the summer holidays are also welcome. But this support that has been put in place is temporary and in some cases is already starting to ebb away. Recent announcements have not contained the much needed commitment to continue, or build on, measures to help people struggling to cover the cost of essentials.
Encouraging people to eat out is one thing, but ensuring people have the means to eat at all must come first. Everyone at Rye Food Bank really appreciates the support received from the Rye community. This generous support has enabled us to keep helping people in very difficult circumstances.
Please keep your donations coming
Please keep your donations coming. This week we need soup, pasta sauce, potatoes, meat, rice pudding, custard, sugar, fruit squash and tea and coffee.
Donations of non-perishable, in-date tinned food can be received at the back of the Baptist Church in Cinque Ports Street in Rye on Wednesdays from 10am until about 2pm and are very welcome.
Monetary donations can be sent to the Bexhill Food Bank, Rye Branch at Barclays Bank, sort code 20-54-25, account number 83501116, the Jempson Foundation or cheques to Rye Food Bank c/o 24 North Salts, Rye. if you donate via the Jempson Foundation and are a taxpayer, gift aid can be applied, thereby increasing the value of the donation by 25% at no cost to the donor.
You can contact Rye Food Bank at ryefoodbank@gmail.com.
Image Credits: Mags Ivatts .