During the crisis, HomeStart had to make changes to the way they work. They had to change their weekly support visits to family homes to either phone or Zoom support as well as their weekly support group. Office support had to switch to home working which required an update in their technology systems to allow safety and confidentiality working out of the office.

HomeStart learnt to support in a variety of ways, offer families activity bags that were times to help them cope, supplying IT equipment to support families with home schooling and providing families with food vouchers when food was difficult to buy especially without transport and with special needs children.

HomeStart have realised that Food Poverty is now only going to be worse. They were recently provided with a grant through our Family Food Aid Fund to provide families with food vouchers specific to the shops they usually use in order for them to keep a continuity of items that they normally purchase. They noticed that children with special needs often have food allergies, food sensitivity and dietary requirements were are not able to be taken into account when using food banks. Being able to provide a voucher for a specific shop allowed families to access the special requirements either to a child with sensory issues or for a child that requires a specific diet due to their health.