Golf club forms partnership with supermarket to help vulnerable residents

A Cheshire golf club has been praised by its local community because a team of its members have been helping people who have been shielding due to Covid-19, including even working with a local supermarket to help them.

Nearly 20 members of Knutsford Golf Club originally shopped for elderly members of the club, but the scheme was extended to anyone vulnerable in the area. It even included a partnership with a local supermarket in which the members would buy the shopping and the recipient would pay for it at the checkout over the phone.

The team called themselves ‘KGC Helpers’.

Local resident Enid Farley said: “I don’t know how I could have coped during the lockdown without the support of the team from KGC Helpers, they have been fantastic!”

The scheme was the brainchild of member Chris Whyatt, who discovered that many elderly members of the golf club were not only single but were required to shield during the pandemic.

Chris Whyatt (right) at the Booths supermarket store in Knutsford with Peter Blain of Booths

He sent out an email to all club members asking for volunteers to help the needy with things such as shopping, parcels to the Post Office or going to the chemist for prescriptions. Nearly 20 members came forward to help.

Once Chris had brought the team of helpers together he created a WhatsApp group and, having identified who would need help from the club membership, he connected the relevant KGC helper by postcode to the person needing support.

Pretty soon they discovered that it was not only members who needed support, but their neighbours as well. The scheme was then extended to cover south Manchester and east Cheshire.

“Once we had identified the need for support it was just a simple job of coordination,” he said.

“The interesting thing is that our support activity has fostered real, lasting friendships with many of the people we are supporting in the community.

“We have also been helped in turn by retail organisations such as Booths supermarket in the town who have been simply fantastic. Once we informed them of our scheme they have let us shop for our new friends and then once each shopping visit has been completed we have been able to make contact at the checkout so that they can then pay for their own shopping by credit card over the phone. It’s worked really well and everyone is very grateful.

“One interesting benefit for me is seeing the different products and commodities that people buy in their weekly shop, and how healthy people shop and eat. I have learned how to shop effectively and I now know where to find everything in Booths!”

The KGC Helpers scheme continues to be successful, a spokesman for the nine-hole club added.