Hey Lovelies, 

Coming out of hospital in the middle of a pandemic is hard lovely. Especially for my parents, who have been so amazing when it comes to helping me try and find foods, I feel are safe or that I am happy to eat. I know though that I am very fortunate that even in my condition, I can have these choices at hand when so many people do not.

The lockdown though has caused a few problems since further restrictions were put in place. My dad, who is 75 and suffers from asthma, diabetes, and COPD, has been put in the shielding programme. This means that he is unable to leave our house. Something that he is finding incredibly hard at the moment, as I am sure many others are too. Yet, he knows it is for the best.


Due to this, we were kindly contacted by our local Hertshelp team, who are sorting the local food parcels for those in this category in Hertfordshire, where we live. The team wanted to know if we would like to receive some food parcels, which include toiletries, cleaning and pet food products if needed too. The service also helps with the delivery of medicines if needed as well. We were amazed that we were asked and said yes, with the team offering boxes for myself and my dad, as we are both vulnerable and have different dietary requirements now.

On Friday afternoon, we both received the items, via a delivery team, who left them on our doorstep. In total there were four boxes. Two including fresh produce, one with cupboard essentials and another with the cleaning and toiletry items. We did not need the pet food and were not going to say yes to it if we had no use for it. In fact, as soon as we said yes to the boxes, we made a pact that anything we wouldn’t use or eat would go back into our local food bank, for others to be able to use preventing any waste.

We were not sure what we were getting before the delivery, but upon unpacking, we got the following:

• One Four Pack of Toilet Rolls
• One Washing Up Sponge
• One Bottle of Bleach
• One Bottle of Persil Laundry Liquid
• One Bottle of Fairy Washing Up Liquid
• One Kitchen Roll
• Four Bottles of Fresh Semi-Skimmed Milk
• Two Hartley’s Mini No Added Sugar Jelly’s
• Six Tomatoes
• Four Large Apples
• 6 Large Kiwis
• Two Bags of Pears – 12 In Each Bag – 24 In Total
• Two Mini Flapjacks
• Three Mini Gingerbread Men
• One Loaf of White Fletcher’s Thick Bread
• Six Packs of Cream Crackers – Two in Each Pack – 12 in Total
• One Orange Juice Cartoon
• One Large Tin of Five Bean Salad in Water

• Two Roast Chicken Mug Shot Soup Cups 
• Seven Uncle John’s Pork Bockwurst Hot Dogs
• One Bag of Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut Cornflakes
• Two Boxes of Six Large Free Range Eggs From Histon Produce Farm
• Four Large Oranges
• One Tin of Fray Bentos Chicken Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
• One Mini Bag of Sun Valley Nut Co. Peanuts
• One Box of Casa De Mare Medium Cous Cous 
• One Tin of Tuna Chunks in Brine
• One Bag of 1KG Gluten Free Bonta d’Italia Penne Pasta
• One 840g Tin of Baked Beans
• Two White Cabbages
• Two Bags of 1.5KG Potatoes
• Two Iceburg Lettuces
• Two Cucumbers
• Three White Onions
• Two Parsnips
• Six Carrots
• Four Leeks
• Five Strawberry Jam Pots
• 19 White Sugar Sachets
• 15 Typhoo Teabags Sachets
• 14 Maxwell House Mild Blend Coffee Sachets
• One Pack of Custard Creams

I am not writing this post to brag about the service but to say a massive thank you to the team. Without their amazing help and the kind donations of the boxes, we wouldn’t have been able to have got hold of some of the items we needed, and the food has come in so handy for many meals. We have also discovered that the people in our local area are even more amazing than we knew them to be and will be forever grateful.

As well, I wanted to share the items in these parcels, because I know many people want to know what some of the things maybe that they will get. We were overwhelmed with the amount we received and were so impressed with the range of options for meals that my parents and myself had for the week.
If you live in the Hertfordshire area and believe that you are entitled to this help, please do reach out.


The teams are so lovely, and kind and I am sure they would be willing to give you their time and help as much as they can. The boxes should be coming weekly and may differ, but they provide you with so many options and my parent's day was made with the gesture and help given to them.

I will forever be thankful for the teams who put this together, including Hertshelp, Hertford Food Bank, Bidfood UK and Brakes, who are just some of those that have helped. Please do check the local Hertfordshire Council website for further help or use the Hertshelp website to find out how to speak to the team about the parcels lovelies.

If you have any further questions, please do reach out to me and I will also be happy to help. We all need to support and stick together during these tough times and I hope this helps you if you are expecting a food parcel in my local area or further afield lovelies.