Healing Manor team come out cooking to support local communities through coronavirus crisis

The team at Healing Manor who have been supporting their local communities during lockdown.

THE coronavirus pandemic has had a profund impact on Chamber members of all shapes and sizes, but with no financial support available, Healing Manor and the Lincolnshire Chef came out cooking to help their local community.

They launched a Go Fund Me Campaign, and have been cooking meals for those in need and also supporting local hospices and charities.

They now want to share a video they have made, documenting their experiences during lockdown.

The Lincolnshire Chef, Steve Bennett, takes up their story...

Whilst our business was asked to close its doors on 22nd March, we have been fighting to survive, alongside many other small businesses. We have had no access to the retail and hospitality grant which was launched shortly after lockdown, mainly due our rateable value. We very quickly decided to move in a very small team to isolate onsite. This has enabled us to house a small number of key workers and run a take away service, which we have now been doing for almost 10 weeks. 

Alongside this, we have been running a #NominateYourNeighbour campaign to support the vulnerable in our direct community with hot meals, safely delivered to their doors, baked thousands of loaves of bread for key workers and our local villages and supported our team of almost 50 with food packs and cook-along videos.

We have also hosted online cooking demonstrations with local farmers, suppliers and bloggers, to keep a focus on the incredible produce which comes from Lincolnshire and our surrounding areas. 

Just under two months ago, we set out to raise £10,000 to help us produce hundreds of meals and essentials for those that need it the most in our local community. Thanks to individual donations and contributions from large companies, based right here in Lincolnshire and on the Humber Bank, we have raised over £23,000.

We have been cooking meals daily over the past four weeks, for patients at St Andrews Hospice. Many of their kitchen team are isolating and unable to work, meaning they’ve required around 30 meals per day for patients receiving end of life care and will require our charitable service for weeks to come.

We are also providing over 200 essential food packages, as well as 200 meals for We Are One Foundation on a weekly basis and we have supported the Health Tree Foundation with the purchase of hundreds of toiletries and essentials for patients at the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital.

We have been overwhelmed with this area's sense of community, pulling together to help each other and we wanted to create a video to showcase this and thank all of those companies who have been involved in this incredible journey. 

We have dedicated this video to Charlotte's father who sadly passed away on 6th May after a very private battle with cancer. We have also dedicated this to everyone else who has lost a loved one, key workers and communities.

COVID-19 has affected us all in so many different ways and we think that it is important that this change in social behaviour is not forgotten.