We continue our series where we highlight how BCFA are supplying and helping the Healthcare industry in this challenging time. Working flat out to supply essential products, we are incredibly proud to have such supportive members. We reach out to a few companies to find out what they’re up to in this difficult time…
Forest Sofa volunteers and delivers food to the community and raises £4,371 for NHS hospital
A Salford based manufacturer helped save tonnes of fresh food from going to waste by delivering it to the elderly, vulnerable and keyworkers.
As the coronavirus pandemic escalated, Ryan Mohieddin, managing director of Forest Sofa and its group companies spoke with friend Andy Farnworth, managing director of Fresh Direct UK. Farnworth shared that as pubs and restaurants were closing across the nation, and with their regular charity partners unable to take any more donations, Fresh Direct UK were faced with the daunting prospect of wasting tonnes of food.
Ryan Mohieddin, Managing Director of Forest Sofa delivering good
“The amount of potential food waste was sickening,” said Mohieddin. “At the time supermarkets were short of stock and elderly and vulnerable people were self-isolating. We simply couldn’t let this food go to waste.
“Coronavirus had closed our factories, halted deliveries and furloughed our staff, so Andy and I decided to work together and make the best of our situation. We delivered food to the people who needed it the most. Furloughed staff meant we had willing volunteers and paused deliveries freed up our vans.”
The team of volunteers led by Mohieddin and Farnworth boxed up tonnes of food and set out to deliver every last piece to a person in need. They started with a market stall before social distancing was in place and sold boxes for £5 a box at The White Horse, Worsley – a Greene King pub and Fresh Direct UK customer. They raised £4,317, which was donated to Salford Royal Foundation Trust.
Food boxes ready for sale at The White Horse, a Greene King pub and Fresh Direct UK customer
Over a two week period they delivered the rest of the food to Humphrey Booth Day Care Centre, North West Fire Control, Community Mental Health teams (Ramsgate House, Presscott House and Cromwell House), Elmwood Church, Salford Primary Care Trust, Trafford Council Adult Social Care Workers, Meadway Health Centre and the local community.
But keeping up with the changing rules and regulations of coronavirus posed a challenge. To continue delivering food they needed more volunteers on hand. The team of furloughed staff reached out and asked locals to volunteer their time. They were saved by St. Mary’s Church. The congregation helped to deliver more than 1,000 boxes to the elderly and vulnerable. Boxes were dropped at people’s doorsteps to keep the process in line with social distancing.
Karen Owen, the vicar at St. Mary’s Church, described the food delivery movement as “triggering a wave of kindness”.
“We have been bowled over by the staggering generosity. The team operated non-stop in stressful conditions,” she said “I couldn’t keep up with the responses we were getting from people, it’s like a wave of kindness was triggered.
“People were sharing with neighbours and I honestly think they were appreciating their food. What Forest Sofa and Fresh Direct UK have done will impact our community for a very long time and the stories will continue.
“They have given so selflessly and people will be sleeping more peacefully because of them I do not exaggerate. The well being of those who received gifts as well as those who delivered has been tangible.”
Ryan Mohieddin said: “We never anticipated the difference these food parcels would make to our community. The reactions and feedback received has been incredibly warming. By the end we were all pretty tired, it was a full time job and much harder work than we could’ve imagined but It was worth it and it left us all feeling very fulfilled.
“When we delivered the final boxes to Meadway health centre we walked in to what felt like an undeserved standing ovation from the true heroes – our keyworkers. Whist it was a touching moment to see their appreciation, the real applause goes to all of our keyworkers for their dedication and hard work.”
You can read more about the food delivery service and donate to the cause at https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/feedingthecommunity. They have already raised £755.00 of a £1,000 target.
Click here to contact Forest Sofa.
Roger Lewis
British furniture maker Roger Lewis is proud to be supporting Foldall in producing much-needed face shields to protect frontline healthcare workers during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Foldall is a not-for-profit initiative created in response to the nation-wide shortage of PPE required to protect NHS staff and other key workers against infection during the pandemic.
To support the cause, Roger Lewis deployed its speciality machinery to help contribute to the production of visors and head straps for the face shields. Since the end of March when the initiative was first launched, the British furniture manufacturer has been assisting the Foldall team in improving and streamlining their production processes.
Former-Dyson design engineer, Edward Chudleigh, was the mastermind behind Foldall’s face shield production. Edward harnessed his expertise in robotics to design the first face shield, FS Mk 1, in his lab with 3D printed components. To enable mass-production of these face shields, Edward and the Foldall team turned to local manufacturers, including Roger Lewis, to support with the production of the key components required for the face shields.
To support the initiative Roger Lewis offered up the use of its CNC flatbed cutting machine, which could be used to produce cut-outs of the polypropylene visor components required for the face shields. Following a few trial runs, the Roger Lewis team helped to digitise the design and fine-tuned the specifications. They went through a number of iterations to refine the process and minimise waste.
Marc Richard, Managing Director at Roger Lewis comments, “As soon as we heard about the fantastic work the Foldall team is doing to support the PPE shortage, we wanted to do something to help. We’re really proud to be able to play our part in supporting the national drive to provide key workers with the PPE that’s so urgently required right now.”
Thanks to the vast waves of community support from local manufacturers, volunteers and donations, Foldall’s production is now so streamlined that the team is getting thousands of shields a day out to front line medical staff. In fact, since going live at the end of March, Foldall has already delivered over 44,000 units and has received over 56,000 orders from NHS sites across the country.
Key milestones:
Since Foldall went live:
- Over 56, 000 shields have been ordered
- Over 44,000 have been shipped nationally
- Production is growing beyond 5,000 a day
- Foldall’s suppliers have been able to take 10 people out of furlough
- Over 360 volunteers have joined the digital rota
Foldall relies on donations to keep production going and enable them to buy the raw materials required to create the face shields. Instead of buying an NHS worker a drink at the pub to thank them for their work, why not donate the drinks money to Foldall to give them a face shield instead?
Click here to contact Roger Lewis.
Edmund Bell
Edmund Bell remains open and operational to support our customers where they can, particularly in the healthcare market.
The team are working from home where possible and their warehouse remains open, whilst following all the guidelines, to ensure they continue to ship important orders and fabric out to their customers and charitable organisations – many of whom are manufacturing PPE products to support the NHS and other healthcare environments and Edmund Bell are supplying fabrics for this purpose.
Edmund Bell are seeing increased enquiries for products which they supply into the healthcare markets including:
- Water and stain resistant upholstery fabrics with anti-microbial and flame retardant finishes: all of which come as standard in our Enduracare+ technology.
- Curtain fabrics, sheers and curtain linings which can be washed at 71oC for thermal disinfection.
Edmund Bell are also extremely proud of their sister company Redwood TTM - they are working flat out to manufacture essential medical equipment and mattresses for the NHS and other healthcare environments.
Click here to contact Edmund Bell.