This week Levenshulme Inspire launched their Meal Buddies on Wheels, providing meals to people who need them most in the community.
You can help keep the wheels turning by donating to their fundraising campaign here
The community response to the Covid-19 crisis in Levenshulme has been instant and generous. Thanks to the Levy Corona Helpers Facebook team and the inspirational leadership of its admins, there have been over 600 offers of support. The Inspire Centre is acting as a hub for organising and delivering the local response.
This work is being organised into 5 workstreams:
- Street-by-street neighbourhood support where neighbours look out for those in need – many local streets will have dedicated volunteer organiser to support immediate needs. This is being organised by the Levy Corona Helpers facebook admins.
- Targeted support for older and more vulnerable residents – regular contact with up to 800 older people on existing local database to provide food, prescriptions and escalate severe cases. This is being organised by Inspired People’s Project, Levenshulme Good Neighbours, RCVS and Irish Community Care.
- Emergency food provision and distribution - additional food bank capacity and provision of healthy take-away / meals-on-wheels service for older people and vulnerable people. This is being organised by Inspire Café.
- Access to ICT equipment for those who need it - donation, repair, distribution and light-touch training of laptops, tablets and phones for use of WhatsApp, Facetime, Skype etc.
- Sustaining community spirit by creating online community activities for those in isolation or lockdown
Most of these activities are being carried out by local volunteers and through individual generosity.
But there are some costs they need to cover to help these activities along:
- £3 will pay for 200 leaflets than can be distributed door to door by local organisers
- £5 will pay for a take-away meal that can be distributed to an isolating older person
- £10 will pay for spare parts and software to refurbish old laptops for those who don’t have online access in their homes
Also, without any revenue from room booking or café takings, the Inspire Centre urgently needs funding to keep the lights on and keep a skeleton staff in place. Levenshulme Inspire currently have about 3-4 weeks operating costs, after that they may have to close the doors.
So they are looking for donations to support this work:
- £15 will pay for the extra cleaning we are having to do each day to keep the centre safe
- £25 will keep the Inspire Centre with light, heat, water and insurance for a day
- £50 will keep the café open for a day to prepare take-away meals for distribution
- £100 could be seen as ‘suspended room hire’ for a whole room for a day