Armley Helping Hands chief thanks AccessBus team for supporting Leeds community during Covid-19 pandemic

The chief executive of a charity which supports older people in Leeds has thanked a bus service team for helping deliver  emergency food parcels to pensioners during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s AccessBus door-to-door services to support people with limited mobility were suspended in line with Government guidelines to stop unnecessary travel.

AccessBus has used its buses and drivers to provide an essential service delivering shopping and meals to people who are shielding or unable to leave their homes, taking patients to clinics and delivering school lunches.

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In Leeds, the team are delivering food parcels to elderly and vulnerable people on behalf of Moor Allerton Elderly Care.

They are also supporting Armley Helping Hands to distribute hot meals to residents in sheltered housing.

Dawn Newsome, chief executive of Armley Helping Hands, said: “We are very grateful for the support the AccessBus team have been providing to older people in the community through the pandemic.

“From helping deliver fish and chips to distributing emergency food parcels their help has been invaluable in helping us meet the needs of our community.”

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City wide the service is also supporting the NHS by transporting patients to essential appointments, providing over 200 round trips since April 27.

In Calderdale AccessBuses are being used to ship supplies from the Real Junk Food Project in Wakefield, to Incredible Edible, a group of volunteers, in Todmorden preparing cooked meals and food parcels for the elderly and vulnerable in Cornholme.

The Cornholme hub provides food to around 120 families every week and has saved several tons of food from landfill.

Coun Kim Groves, chair of West Yorkshire Combined Authority Transport Committee, said: "When lockdown started our priority was to ensure all our service users had alternative means of getting their essential shopping whilst our service was suspended.

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"Once that was done, we knew there was plenty we could do to continue to support our service users, partner organisations and stakeholders.

“In normal times the service caters for some of the most vulnerable and socially excluded members of society. Thanks to the efforts of the AccessBus team and our operators the buses are still out on the road supporting those people in these difficult times.”

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