Feeding the Comm-unity – #QuarantineQuilt

Wonderful contributions to our Executive Director, Kate Shurety’s, Quarantine Quilt continue to keep the Royal Mail Postal Service in business! In this blog we’re sharing some of the stories of connection people have shared alongside their contributions, and what’s helping them stay connected, even when we’re far apart.  

Comm-unity

When I received Kate’s invitation to take part in the ‘quarantine quilt’, a word came to mind immediately. It was a word that had been churning around in my head for a while; an attempt to think about something positive around Covid-19 and the unnerving situation we were suddenly catapulted into. The word was ’unity’.

This strange invisible virus had somehow united people across continents, across countries and across our own country. Suddenly, we were bound by this mutual assassin and we were connected to people in China, Italy, Spain, France, the USA and many more countries beyond. We watched and watched trying to understand their experiences, so we would be better prepared to deal with our own version of what was coming.

There was something else though, something about the micro impact the virus was having on people which turned ‘unity’ into ‘comm-unity’. Two words that reflected my response to what I was experiencing.

“This strange invisible virus had somehow united people across continents, across countries and across our own country.”

I can see the power in community; as we help one another with shopping, as we talk across the street, two metres apart, as we ask after loved ones of others, and as we stood outside our doors to clap for the NHS.

Community has ensured we are looking after one another. It urges us to sing together on Zoom and to share with honesty how we are feeling.

Community is how we have already and will continue to work through each phase of the lockdown and the new reality Covid-19 has presented.

I love fabrics, and denim had to be my fabric of choice for this project. I selected it for its durability; because it is tough and hard wearing. I wanted the letters to be looped-stitched in a practical rather than beautiful way. Traits that seemed apt for the situation we were suddenly immersed in.

For me comm-unity is central, and it gives me strength and hope.

Food

My partner decided to select ‘food’ as his word. He was slightly swayed by my son, who has a real passion for food and eating.

The lockdown has seen our family produce a range of dishes from various countries and numerous loaves of sourdough bread, made from a mother yeast that needs to be fed continuously. There have been a lot of curries cooked, eaten with homemade parathas and idlis (my son loves chilli), but we have also branched out into phos, baobuns and gyozas.

“Food has brought many together during lockdown, bonding over soughdough starters and banana bread, but it remains a luxury for many.”

The fabrics my partner selected were based on what was available in the house: a neighbour’s old sari, cuttings from curtains that used to hang in our old flat and a lone shoe lace. There was an underlying theme to these too: they all offered a bit of a 1970s cookware vibe – rich in beiges and browns.

My Mum is 81 and she was in Italy when German and American soldiers arrived in her little mountainous village, during World War Two. She says the differences between then and lockdown now are our access to food, safe shelter and broadband.

Food has brought many together during lockdown, bonding over soughdough starters and banana bread, but it remains a luxury for many. My partner and a friend are trying to alleviate this for some by regularly delivering food parcels to people and families who are unable to afford or leave home to pick up shopping.

Food is an essential that not everyone has access to during lockdown. We are lucky, but there are lots of people who are struggling in this time of quarantine and financial insecurity.