Last updated: 15/12/2021
As long as we can keep growing veg, we plan to carry on delivering your veg to you! We do need to make some adjustments to our service though – please check back to this page for updated information during the pandemic. Please be patient if we do not answer your calls or emails immediately – we are juggling home working, staff absences and many new operational challenges as we try to increase capacity and deliver to as many households as possible whilst keeping staff, volunteers and customers safe.
Thank you for your support and cooperation at this time!
Look after each other and stay healthy,
from the Sutton Community Farm team
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Order deadline
The deadline for placing orders remains Midnight on Sunday. Please amend your orders, delivery instructions and dislikes by midnight on Sunday for deliveries the following Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. If you have any questions please do get in touch.
Local Deliveries
We will continue to make our local deliveries on a Wednesday and Thursday. Due to the limitations of our website and routing system, we cannot commit to delivering to you on the same day each week; it will vary between Wednesday and Thursday depending on the number and location of orders each week. If you live in the local area, please assume that your deliveries will be made on Thursday. We will email you on Monday or Tuesday if we are moving your delivery to Wednesday.
“Contactless” delivery
Although restrictions have been lifted, we would ask that our customers continue to maintain social distancing where possible with our drivers. If you live in a flat with confined lifts, staircases or hallways, the driver may ask you to come down to collect your vegbox. We’d ask that you respect our driver’s concerns and be as flexible as possible. Please leave your old bags out the night before – please do not attempt to take your order from drivers or hand bags back to them.
Returning your bags
With the increase in orders, we are still relying on customers to return their jute bags! Currently there is no evidence to support transmission of COVID-19 associated with food or packaging. There is some evidence that the virus can survive for up to 12 hours on fabric, although it is unlikely to be at an infectious level.
We can be confident the bags being delivered to you will not be contaminated due to the steps that we are taking outlined below. Please take these steps to ensure the bags you return are also safe for our drivers to handle.
- Please leave your bags out for collection at least overnight before your delivery day, and as far as possible, please leave them somewhere dry so that they don’t get unnecessarily marked, stained or water-damaged. We have a dedicated team of volunteers who sort all returned bags each week, cleaning any where necessary in order to keep them in circulation as long as possible.
- If you or anyone in your household becomes ill with COVID-19 symptoms, please do not return bags until your isolation period has passed
Packing and hygiene
We’ve made lots of changes at the farm to keep our staff, volunteers and customers safe, such as:
- We’ve introduced a new online volunteer rota system, so that the number of volunteers on site is limited to just how many we need to grow our veg and pack your orders
- We rearranged our packing space and added extra tables to allow for social distancing
- We created an outdoor tea station and break area so staff and volunteers don’t need to go inside for refreshments
- We now have additional regular cleaning regimes for areas such as door handles and other high-touch surfaces
- We have made it mandatory for all staff and volunteers to wash their hands when they first arrive to the farm, and before and after eating and drinking
- We are providing disposable gloves for our VegBox packers, and clean gardening gloves for our field volunteers
- Our drivers are practicing ‘contactless deliveries’ – leaving your orders in your ‘safe place’ or doorsteps rather than handing them over to you
- Staff and volunteers are regularly reminded to not come to the farm if they or any member of their household are displaying symptoms of Covid19.
All these decisions were made based on the current guidelines from NHS England and the World Health Organisation. We will of course be reviewing updated guidance and will keep making improvements as the situation evolves.
We would like to remind customers to follow good hygiene practices too – please remember to wash your hands after unpacking your veg at home, as well as washing all fruit and veg before eating as usual.