Love thy neighbour!

As lockdown loomed, Elim’s Crewkerne Community Church predicted locals would need help... 1,380 shopping trips and 1,024 hot meals later, their Be A Good Neighbour scheme has become an essential support system for vulnerable people

- Elim’s Crewkerne

During our last live service here on March 17, our pastor said that with lockdown inevitable, we would need to support our community,” says Paul Ward.

“We wrote ‘name, address, telephone number’ on a piece of paper, and that’s how our ‘Be A Good Neighbour’ scheme started.”

Paul, who attends Crewkerne Community Church in Somerset and heads up the project, is looking back on BAGN’s remarkable journey over the past six months.

“We began by sending out 1,500 flyers asking if anyone over 70 needed help with shopping or prescription collections now we were in lockdown, or would appreciate a weekly phone call. The idea was that because people were suddenly not going out, and some didn’t have family nearby, we could support them.

“We were somewhat surprised to find that 284 people from Crewkerne and the surrounding villages registered.”

The team quickly got organised, with an admin squad of six and an office operating seven days a week. The calls, shopping trips and prescription pick-ups began.

Then Waitrose leant a hand – promising that BAGN volunteers would not have to queue to shop. But as the volunteers made their deliveries, they became aware that some people weren’t eating hot meals.