Transatlantic plea for help sees Derbyshire Co-op team provide vital food and support to self-isolating couple

Posted by rob smyth | Published: 08/05/2020

A Central England Co-op store in Derbyshire moved quickly to help a local vulnerable couple – following a transatlantic search for support from their son.

Tracy Hawkins, Store Manager at the Central England Co-op Grangewood Road Food Store, in Chesterfield, and her team jumped into action when a surprise phone call from two local residents who needed urgent help to deliver food and essentials as they were self-isolating came about thanks to their son, Tim Greenan, all the way from his home in Boston, Massachusetts.

Mr Greenan was desperately trying to find a way to support his parents from over 3,000 miles away in America when, with the help of Google, he stumbled across the great community work the Grangewood Road team had been doing.

He passed on the details of the store to his parents, who it emerged lived just five minutes from the shop, and they arranged for an emergency delivery to take place.

Tracy said: “We love being part of our community and being able to help out those in need, especially at uncertain times like these, but were still surprised to get a plea inspired by someone who lives over 3,000 miles away.

“Tim lives all the way in Boston and was getting worried about his parents, who had told him they were getting really concerned as they were self isolating, unable to get any good from anywhere and starting to run low on things.

“He found out about us following a search online and passed on our details to his parents. They quickly got in touch and we found out they only lived five minutes away from the shop.

“We were saddened to hear the troubles they were facing and were glad to be able to help. We sorted out an emergency delivery first off and have already done a second drop to them.

“Our entire team have seen first-hand the impact Coronavirus has had on this area and whatever we can do to help, we will do. It is times like these that provide real examples of co-operation – even ones that started off over 3,000 miles away in a completely different part of the world.”

People can keep up to date with what is happening in their local community in response to Coronavirus by visiting a dedicated online hub at www.centralengland.coop/updates

Notes to editors

Picture caption: Tracy Hawkins, Store Manager at the Central England Co-op Grangewood Road Food Store.

About Central England Co-operative

Central England Co-operative is one of the largest independent retail co-operative societies in the UK with interests in food, funeral, floral, travel and property investment.

Co-operatives have always been there for their communities; they were formed to protect them and help them flourish. 

Our 7,900 colleagues who serve Members and customers work hard to ensure that co-operative values, principles and spirit flow through everything we do to help support and improve our local communities.

Owned by hundreds of thousands of Members, we have over 430 trading outlets across 16 counties including West Midlands, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. 

We are proud of our reputation for ethical business practices and corporate responsibility.

We invest a percentage of our trading profit into local communities through our Community Dividend Fund scheme, have donated over £1.3 million to our corporate charity partner Dementia UK and also operate a pioneering food redistribution partnership with FareShare Midlands so unsold food goes to those in need.

Visit www.centralengland.coop for more information or follow us on Facebook or Twitter using @mycoopfood

Press office contacts: Rob Smyth and James Brindle

Phone - 01543 421390

Email - publicrelations@centralengland.coop