Thanet Green Party councillors and volunteers have teamed up with Our Kitchen on the Isle of Thanet and its Ramsgate Our Shop to bring snack bags to hard-pressed NHS staff working on the front line at Margate’s QEQM hospital.
The Green Party and community volunteers aim to start distributing some 500 bags this week and have launched a justgiing page to buy more supplies.
The fundraising target is £2,500 but the team says as long as money is coming in they will be buying and distributing the bags.
A donation of £1,000 worth of noodle pots has also been made by Kabuto Noodles, based in Bristol.
A member of East Kent Hospitals said: “This second wave has hit local hospitals incredibly hard, with more than double the number of patients seriously ill in hospital than during the first wave. With staff off sick or isolating, and with the need to protect vulnerable staff, those working on the wards are struggling to find time to take meal breaks.”
Thanet Green Party Chair and Councillor, Mike Garner, said: “As a party working closely with our communities, we see the hardship this pandemic is bringing to the people of Thanet. Anxiety levels are high. We need to believe that our over-stretched hospitals will be there for us if we need them. In turn, we want to do our best to look after them. In providing nutritious snacks we hope we can make a difference for the NHS staff on whom we depend.”
Green Councillor Trevor Roper added: “Please donate to help us keep going with this vital project; the more money we receive, the more we can help!”
It’s strange that the political opposition parties are trying to score points with the pandemic this was never done when we had serious flu epidemics in recent years none of them were interested. It’s good people volunteer to help the NHS staff but not at scoring political points. Brian 👍
We are not scoring politiclal points, i with sharon started the food shop last year , being a Labour councillor i am delighted that the Green Party are now involved, we work also with a leading liberal party member and we are delighted craig McKinley nominated us for a parliamentary award and recently we were nominated by the prime minister for a charity award. Gary Taylor independent councillor in dane valley also nominated sharon for the yearly isle of Thanet award for work in the community. We are non political but i think it is fantastic we can get cross party unity in thanet. Our motto. Thanet feeds itself better…
Perhaps the USA needs to follow Thanet’s example! ; )
Should’ve added, a big well done to everyone involved!
Thank you Barry, that is our view exactly. My personal opinion is that party politics are out of place at local level and party loyalties can be a distraction, but we are very lucky here in Thanet to have so many Councillors working closely with their communities to try to improve their lives, no matter what their party.
You doknow you’re not supposed to charge for gleaned products fo you Cllr?
Please can we just leave politics out of this and simply donate to an extremely worthwhile cause. I don’t care which political party started this initiative, it is just wonderful that something practical is being done to help the very overworked NHS staff who are giving their everything to those who are seriously affected by this virus.
And we will be putting really good food and drink in these bags: We want to treat all the staff in the QEQM like the stars they are!
Outstanding effort and I’m sure very well received.
I am really shocked to see that as of today (Sunday 10th January) only 32 people from the whole of Thanet have donated to this initiative. I understand there are many who cannot afford to contribute, but there are thousands who could afford to give something to our dedicated NHS staff in such a time of crisis.
Please be kind in your comments. These are really really tough times for every single one of us. We cannot expect any more from people. We are all just doing our best.