During these challenging times, the Plymouth Raiders are committed to helping our community and supporting where we can to help overcome this COVID-19 crisis, and have therefore teamed up with Tamar Grow Local and Courier Force to help ensure local produce and essential supplies are still being delivered across the region, especially to those currently in self-isolation.
Tamar Grow Local is a Community Interest Company, founded with the aim of supporting local growers, farmers and producers in various ways, one of which is via their home delivery service, the Tamar Valley Food Hub. Ordered are placed between Friday and Wednesday morning each week, and deliveries are made to either collection points or your own front door on a Friday afternoon.
There has never been a more important time to help our local producers and ensure that deliveries are still getting to their destinations, and with more and more people having to now self-isolate, the service provided by Tamar Grow Local has never been more important.
This week Raiders’ Director Richard Mollard was joined by Raiders’ BBL player, Will Neighbour to handle deliveries in and around the Bere Peninsular, and General Manager Heather Nash and Community Coach, Ben Fox looked after the delivery route in and around Plymouth, assisted by Courier Force who have kindly provided a van for use free of charge during this crisis.
Mollard, who also sits on the board of Tamar Grow Local, said, “During these immensely challenging, unprecedented times it’s so importantly that we all do what we can to help each other. We need to keep our spirits up, try and stay positive, and the best way we can do this is to show generosity and compassion where possible.
“Obviously this is also an incredibly difficult time for the Raiders, who like a lot of business, are going to have to tighten belts considerably, but we’re committed to riding the storm and keeping our off-court staff employed, and while the workload has dropped we’re going to commit our resources to help our community in any way we can.
“As a Director of TGL, it was an obvious place to start, and as long as we’re allowed we’ll continue to support TGL in ensuring that produces is still getting to its destination, and we’ll be volunteering our time and resources anywhere else we can to try and help us all get through this difficult time.
“I also want to sing the praises of all the incredible NHS workers, and health carers in general, and urge all our fans and the public in general to take this very serious so as not to unnecessarily overburden the service. Adhere to the advice being given by the Government, ensure you wash your hands and practice social distancing, and all being well we will overcome this together.”
Rachael Forster from Tamar Grow Local added, “As a Community Interest Company we’ve been committed to supporting our community for over a decade, but never did we think our Food Hub would become such a vital lifeline for many at such a troubling time.
“This has been a record breaking week in terms of our orders, as you might imagine, and we need more and more help to keep on top of supply and delivery, so we are incredibly grateful for the Raiders and Courier Force who have stepped in to assist, it means a lot to us and our customers.
“We will continue to operate as usual for as long as we’re able, and although stocks may become limited at times, we’re always grateful for new customers. Even when not in times of crisis our retail supply service via the Hub provides a vital revenue stream to all our suppliers, who set their own prices and receive 85% of the retail price of their goods.”
“Rest assured that we have put new processes in place to ensure our end to end service is as safe as it can be, and we’ll be doing contactless deliveries to ensure we still keep to social distancing recommendations.”
The Hub is operating as business as usual between Friday mornings and Wednesday morning, and orders can be placed at www.tamarvalleyfoodhubs.org.uk
Tamar Valley Food hub stocks an incredible range of local, organic and ethical products, from seasonal fruit and vegetables, and meat straight from local farms, as well as a large array of household and store cupboard goods.
You can also donate via the Hub to the ‘Pay it Forward’ scheme, which will see vegetables being supplied to families in need via Plymouth’s Grow Share Cook project and local soup kitchens.