217./ Spaghetti Bolognese and no internet

This lady phoned in, and requested ingredients so she could make spaghetti bolognese for her partner, she told us which ingredients she has, and which she needed. We added a few other bits and pieces as well.

Then we got chatting, her partner was trying to get a loan, but needed to send in bank statements and ID, but couldn’t because he doesn’t have an email address, and doesn’t know how to create one, and doesn’t have a computer, or a smartphone, or internet at home, and struggles with reading anyway due to dyslexia. They would have gone to citizens advice, or maybe the library, but that’s closed as well. So whilst all these support services move online, they’re leaving a large group of people completely unable to access any of them. What do you do, if you have no internet, no wifi, no connected devices? They’re far from being the only ones. I’m not sure how to help with this, we could create an email account for them, but they have no wifi, there’s not even any cafes open with wifi. Will see how things change and progress. I know some food bank services are only discoverable via the internet. How else to find them…?

Perhaps we should call all our clients and do a little survey, to see how many of them have internet access… and to see what else they need, and give them info regarding other food banks … Let’s do that. See how widespread the problem is. Because the thing is, I suspect the people most in need, most isolated, most in poverty, aren’t digitally connected. And the gentleman trying to get a loan would be better going to a credit union or something rather than a presumably expensive alternative.. will try to look into this for them.

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