By Monica Chard
Nourish our Nurses is a campaign which was set up back in March 2020, right at the beginning of the first lockdown. It’s objective was to supply NHS staff and community nurses in Surrey with boxes of sustenance, full of fresh fruit, veg and pasta, enough to last a week. We can all remember the footage of exhaust-ed nurses trying to get food in the supermarkets only to find shelves stripped bare. These parcels of fresh produce not only give our hard-working NHS staff a vitamin boost, but the support helps with morale too. Co-founder and former Shepperton girl, Jo-Ann Airikkala says “The teams on the frontline of the NHS are doing an extraordinary job and deserve our support during this crisis”. Teams of volunteers have been delivering food hampers filled with fresh fruit, vegetables, salad and pasta to Ashford and St Peter’s Hospital, Community Nurses and SEC Ambulance Station. You may have seen Sophie, Countess of Wessex helped out last year on International Nurses Day and Nourish our Nurses appeared on BBC1 Ross Kemps Volunteer Army. With the new lockdown, the team are keen for more money donations. Please donate so that these hard-working volunteers can continue supplying NHS Staff in Surrey, the South East Coast Ambulance and Community Nurs-es. The fundraising page is found at www.nourishournurses.co.uk. Or you can help in a smaller and more direct way. Jo-Ann is collecting hand cream. Constant sanitising has a bad side effect of drying out our hands, and for health care workers even more so. Skinners, in the Avenue, Sunbury have agreed to have a plastic box where people can donate unopened hand cream to be distributed to the Ashford & St. Peter’s Hospital doctors and nurses. Any size will do; pocket-size or for work stations as they are constantly using hand creams within their teams. These poor people have cracked knuckles and skin from washing hands 100+ times a day (before and after every patient contact and touching any-thing ‘shared’ such as telephones!) We also hear that the amazing Claire Hopkins from Sunbury based Surplus to Supper is helping with providing Jo-Ann with fresh fruit and vegetables. Surplus to Supper is the local charity which is making sure surplus food from supermarkets does not go to waste. This action in itself means Jo-Ann has to spend less buying in goods for the boxes. So far the Nourish the Nurses team have delivered over 5,400 boxes to NHS staff to date. Each box costs approximately £10 to supply and every penny is spent on the fresh produce and is packed by a wonderful team of volunteers. When you know what a difference these boxes make, you, you realise how important it is. These thank-yous received from A&E recently: “I would like to thank you all so much for thinking of us, but most of all bringing some excitement, smiles and happiness into this tough time for everyone. I am humbled to think that we should be gifted with this when I am only doing my job”.
“Thank you again you lovely, kind people” Emergency Department Matron
What a fantastic initiative. Sunbury will be pleased to help you. Keep it up!
If you would like to contact Jo-Ann directly her email is nourishournurses@gmail.com