During this period, the Ageless Thanet volunteering team have worked closely with partners to support a Thanet and East Kent wide initiative, led by Social Enterprise Kent\u2019s social prescribing service, Connect Well East Kent<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Thanet alone, 1478 calls were made and received from people seeking advice, a total of 996 food and prescription deliveries.<\/p>\n The service has been extremely valuable for those who are most at risk of loneliness and isolation during the Covid-19 crisis.<\/p>\n On behalf of Ageless Thanet, Heather Biddles said<\/p>\n \u201cWe would like to thank Kent Business School and Santander Universities for their support of our Ageless Thanet volunteering programme during the COVID-19 pandemic.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Unsurprisingly we received a lot of phone calls from people who were concerned that as they were shielding, they would not be able to do their food shopping or collect their prescriptions.\u201d<\/p>\n Other organisations to benefit from the Santander Universities funding included the Ambrette restaurant<\/a> which supplied hot food to the homeless via Canterbury-based charity, Porchlight<\/a> and Kent Fresh<\/a> Doorstep Delivery which delivered fresh fruit and veg to the elderly in care homes.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kent-business-matters\/files\/2020\/07\/ageless-thanet-285x300.png\")
<\/a>She continued, \u201cPrior to lockdown, we established our office number as a helpline, encouraging anyone who was worried to give us a call. Even if we were not able to directly help them, we knew that we would be able to signpost them to other local organisations who could.<\/p>\n