THE most vulnerable people who are at the highest risk if they fall ill with the coronavirus will receive government-funded food parcels this week.

Packages containing basic food are being delivered today and tomorrow to people who have been told not to leave their homes for 12 weeks.

Bury Council’s chief executive Geoff Little said the food parcels for “shielded” people provided by the government through the local authority are intended to “tide them over” until supermarket deliveries have been arranged.

He said: “People who are identified as needing to be shielded have phoned our helpline. What we’re doing is giving them basic food stuffs. That’s just an interim measure.

“Within the next week we expect to make more substantial arrangements with big national retail chains who will be delivering food for those shielded people on a regular basis.”

The local authority has set up a food distribution system to collect food and distribute it out to those who say that they need it.

The first phase of this scheme will be to deliver food for the people the government has said should be “shielded” because they are at the highest risk should they end up having coronavirus.

The council is also working with the interfaith council and other religous representatives to ensure that the food provided is suitable for observant residents, taking into account the upcoming festivals of Passover and Eid.

A total of five community hubs have been set up across the borough to support vulnerable people, including one at Castle Leisure Centre.

They are being staffed by council workers as well as staff from the fire and rescue service, Six Town Housing and the police.

Mr Little said the council and other public services are now focusing on providing essential services only.

He said: “There are around 100 council staff from across a range of non-essential services to support those hubs. They’re all doing a great job to support communities through those hubs.

“It’s not just council staff. It’s a real team effort across all council and public services they are all pitching in.”

Council leader David Jones said that staff who have been moved from non-essential services such libraries and leisure centres have been happy to help.

Public service trade union UNISON has been particularly supportive of the move, according to Cllr Jones.

He said: “This is what brings the best out of people. We haven’t seen any push back. We’ve seen excellent examples of people’s commitment.”

The council leader urged residents to call the Bury Council community hub hotline on 0161 253 5353 if they know of anyone who may need help during this time.

He added: “If you’ve got residents in the borough who are aware of neighbours who they believe can’t get to the shops, we’d urge them to contact this number. It’s the council’s customer contact number. We use that to contact the individual hubs.”

“If you’ve got a neighbour of a relative you can’t go near, just ring that number.”