Like for everyone in the world, the first couple of weeks were exhausting; learning new routines, learning how to live together 24/7, learning how to be a teacher, a counsellor, a full time chef, a full time cleaner etc....

I have one child in year 3 at Belmont and one in year 2 at Grimsdell. For the first two weeks, with the exceptional help from all the teachers, my kids completed home schooling. Phew!! Without their support I would have definitely sunk! I have a new found admiration for our teachers and our amazing community.

But what now? We had 3 weeks Easter holiday and I needed to keep busy whilst spending time with my girls.

I joined a Facebook group set up by two local mums I knew who started a meals on wheels NHS initiative. As a result of joining my girls and I started baking individually wrapped biscuits and cakes for the NHS staff.

 
We are also making 50 meals twice a week for 'you donate we deliver' until this nightmare is over.’ Its like ‘Ready steady cook’ - you're given a crate full of various ingredients and I have to come up with the meals and make them.

You donate, we deliver has grown so much and are now delivering over 1200 meals a day to NHS workers across multiple boroughs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
 

As well as cooking we’ve joined another group ‘Visor army’.  This group was started by Dr Deborah Braham, Consultant Anaesthatist at Hammersmith Hospital who together with a small number of friends started making the visors from their dining room tables and the group has now grown to over a thousand volunteers and counting! Even Jonathan Ross has joined the army!

They are being distributed to Intensive Care Units at hospitals for nurses, doctors and anaesthetists.
  #visorarmy #makeavisorsaveahero #letsdothisfordeborah

Lockdown also provided us with much communication (Zoom, FaceTime etc) with my family, including my sister Jo. She is a year 2 teacher at Grimsdell and began her lockdown experience with ‘the virus’.

She has recovered and found many ways to keep busy, as well as working incredibly hard, learning a whole new way of interactive teaching online! She also had the urge to help our NHS heroes and has joined both the mentioned groups.

With the help of her children and neighbours, she has collected bags of non perishable goods, baked various goods, made visors and sent a thank you letter from her son- all for our heroes!

 
A unique time for everyone but knowing that we have been helping the people who are helping our country, makes us feel extremely proud!
 
 

150 meals made in 1 and a half weeks.