I wish I could tell you how many times I have been asked if we are ok during the last 4 months since our business ceased trading owing to the Pandemic, and how many times I have simply replied, Oh, we are good thank you, keeping busy, it will all be ok, we just need to survive the next … ( that part changes depending on updates) but currently I say until April when we will have the busiest Spring and Summer we have ever had..BUT! how do I really feel inside and how many people really want the truth.
So honestly how am I, well I spend a fair bit of time feeling physically sick, I don’t sleep terribly well, I spend hours counting direct debits and standing orders instead of sheep. I know we will survive , I spent a long time on that cashflow back in March and erred on the no business at all so when we can trade again anything will be a bonus i.e. after Furlough ends that simply means we can pay the mortgage BUT, yes that one again, I am not alone..I am a tiny person in a huge wedding and event industry all alone feeling the same. This time next year will hopefully be very different I won’t have time to clean the house, shop, cook etc. and year will be ever so slightly blurred.
But the rest of the time I am still a glass half full person and early on in Lockdown we knew we wanted to do something useful, we needed owing to various conditions between us self isolate as much as possible so volunteering anywhere wasn’t an option and then we thought of the Winter Night Shelter organised by a group of churches but our contact was Jeremy at the Bright City Church, so we gave him a call. We had sent over food during the winter months on occasion when the churches become shelters between November & March.
It was the best call we have made during this crisis, from the first week when Graham went through the freezers and we sent over 50 meals, then to the regular 30 meals per week which went up weekly when we realised how the need had increased and now in excess of 120 meals every week. The homeless has been temporarily & some permanently housed but with little facilities in some cases and the people requiring help were also those that have simply slipped through the support network. Some weeks the church are delivering over 150 food parcels per week, they get support from Foodshare, Brakes & major supermarkets , some of it items for the parcels and some larger items, whole Turkeys, Gammons, 5kg bags of pasta etc. which they bring to us to turn into beautiful tasty meals. Last week Chicken & Mince but also Pak Choy, Sprouting Broccoli, Carrots & Courgettes, we get so excited at the Fresh vegetables, even if it’s lot of work to prep, the meal will so much better with bright fresh vegetables.
So every Monday it’s like Ready, Steady, Cook, Graham looks at the ingredients for a while and then it’s all systems go to make & pack 120 meals by the end of the day between us, but no shortcuts. The mash is fresh potatoes, put through the mouli, whipped up with butter & cream, the sauces ( unless we get donated ones) all made with fresh ingredients and seasoned as though we were preparing food for one of our events. The Gammon is slowly cooked then glazed with honey & mustard.
We realised in order to meet the demand we needed to buy meat ourselves in order to make larger quantities of each dish so there is now an element of preplanning but we often get last minutes donations mid cooking so there are always some twists to the dishes on the day
And that’s how I get my smile back at the moment, I just want someone feeling like I often do at the moment opening a meal and it bringing a smile to their faces too.
We have also been able to hold a couple of wedding meetings and even tastings, all outside so far. Which feels a bit more like the new normal but we intend to keep our Foodbank Mondays going at least until next Spring. And when we planned a week off, we just made 250 meals instead!
The foodbank still urgently need items for the foodbank parcels so if you are in a position to help do get in touch & you can also help put smiles on faces too, tins, packets, coffee, tea anything is gratefully received by Justin and his team of volunteers.
Keep smiling, it’s the best thing we can do, but now again it’s also ok to be honest!
Debbie & Graham Green