Entrepreneur launches online platform that lets volunteers do shopping for the vulnerable

Community Spirit

A queue at a Sainsbury's. Volunteers are now helping the vulnerable with their shopping

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Lizzie Edmonds @lizzieedmo17 June 2020

A tech entrepreneur has launched a service allowing Londoners to do shopping for vulnerable people — inspired by his own mother’s struggle to get hold of food.

Banking entrepreneur George Bevis launched online platform Pop To The Shop in order to help the thousands of people in the capital who are unable to leave the house.

Those who are isolating or shielding write a shopping list, specifying how much they want to spend on each item.

The platform links them up with a nearby volunteer who will take their list and budget, do the shopping, and then drop it at their door.

The volunteers must provide a receipt and are then reimbursed by the person they have helped via the Pop To The Shop platform.

It can also be used by those isolating to have their prescriptions or other medical supplies delivered to the door.

There is a £1 booking fee to cover the running costs of the not-for-profit service.

Team GB Hockey player Henry Weir, who competed in the 2016 Rio Games, is among the volunteers who have signed up to the platform and is currently shopping for others around his home in Notting Hill.

Islington-based Mr Bevis, 41, a co-founder of e-bank Tide, said he had the idea after his mother, who is 79 and lives in West Sussex, was in danger of running out of supplies.

He said: “She didn’t meet any of the criteria for council support or priority for supermarket shops but she didn’t want to leave the house.

"There is no better reason to start something than being inspired by the situation of your own mother.”

He added: “We’ve got the supermarkets working tirelessly to deliver to as many people as possible and the NHS Volunteer Responder scheme serving those with medical needs, but there are still people who are going unsupported and they need help from the rest of us.

“It’s fantastic to see how many local communities are finding ways to support their most vulnerable members. Pop To The Shop has been designed to help this happen on an even broader scale.”