How can self-isolators get food?

As the world went into lockdown we asked what it would take to ensure that self-isolators could access food. We anticipated that volunteers would be willing to shop and deliver, but worried that there might be problems with payment if recipients didn’t have cash to pay with (or volunteers weren’t sure if they would get paid).

So, we built Pop To The Shop: a not-for-profit website where self-isolators could request items to be delivered by volunteers and use a card to pre-authorise payments for them. We launched in April and recruited hundreds of volunteers around the UK within days. Right now a partner team is planning to launch Pop To The Shop in the USA too.

Pop To The Shop went from concept to launch in 5 weeks, assembling an incredible team of developers, lawyers, PR experts, and of course food delivery volunteers all across the UK. We’re proud to have enabled food deliveries as part of the national response to the crisis and also thrilled to have learnt that so many amazing talents were willing to contribute their time for free.