Those over 70 and those with underlying conditions are advised not to leave their homes at all, even for groceries and essential supplies. Yet online delivery slots from supermarkets are often few and far between.
While the situation seems bleak, community heroes are putting smiles on faces and food on tables, with rugby volunteers all over Wales proving to be key to those in need. In Treharris near Merthyr Tydfil, the rugby club is providing a vital service for the whole community.
“We don’t see ourselves as just a club. We are the beating heart of the community,” said Huw Evans, a club committee member.
Despite limited facilities, a mother and daughter cooking team Pip and Stacey Gwynne are turning out hundreds of meals for residents and key workers every week. An army of rugby club volunteers are arriving at the kitchen’s outdoor serving hatch to collect and deliver meals to doorsteps.
Front line workers such as NHS staff and those keeping the cogs of daily life turning are collecting takeaways. Last weekend, 100 Sunday lunches were delivered to the homes of those most in need.
Huw explains, “Logistically, we really are at the very centre of our community. The club was built on the old deep navigation colliery. Naturally, workers’ homes were built around it. Our very presence on that site means we are central to everything.
“Within our club, we know the people who might be struggling. And this mobilisation of volunteers hasn’t happened overnight.”
Huw explains that a real galvanising factor in the club’s efforts to build a volunteer scheme was after local rugby player Brooke Morris went missing. In October 2019, police found the 22-year-old’s body in the river near Abercynon:
“We had about three or four hundred people searching for Brooke every day. As a community, we were devastated that it ended tragically. After that, we set up a volunteer scheme called Friends of the Phoenix. We knew that we could play a really valuable role in the community.”
The club was promoted to division two last season and was pushing for division one before all games came to a halt last month. But its community ambitions are as important as those on the pitch:
“We don’t have the biggest or the best facility, but we have the potential to be a community hub that works with older people’s charities and with young people. There is so much more we want to do. This is just the start.”
Dawn Bowden Assembly Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney added her support for the scheme:
“The club is a fantastic example of the response local people are making in response to this virus. I offer my heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in these efforts as you are all helping to keep people safe in our communities”
