Nearly 100 volunteers are helping up to 800 residents in Kibworth during the lockdown

Nearly 100 volunteers are now helping about 800 residents in Kibworth during the lockdown.

And the newly founded Kibworth Isolation Relief Team (KIRT) has received a donation of £200 for its contingency fund thanks to local housebuilder Mulberry Homes.

Established by five Kibworth residents in response to the UK’s Coronavirus lockdown measures, the group supports the vulnerable, those who are isolating and busy key workers in the village access essential items such as food and medicines.

There is now a volunteer on every street ready to help their neighbours.

The team has also been providing information updates via a newsletter and a Facebook group and has been managing a telephone helpline (provided and initially funded by the Kibworth Community Library) which is diverted to one of the ‘Kibworth Five’s’ mobile.

Members include Merryn Lynes, known to many as the 'Egg Lady' who delivers more than 2,000 fresh eggs from Robinson Farms and bags of flour from Dolly’s Tea Room in Great Glen to Kibworth residents every Tuesday dressed in a chicken outfit!

The group was unsuccessful in applying for a grant from other sources so was delighted when Mulberry Homes stepped in with the cash.

Anne-Marie Barker, one of the founders of KIRT said: “We are thrilled that Mulberry could help us in this way.

"We have been overwhelmed with how the service has been taken up by local people and this just shows how much the community needs the support of one another.

“Having a contingency fund means we can now support our volunteers with fuel costs, fund the library phone bill and have an emergency money source to cover things that we have not envisaged yet.

"This will ensure the services KIRT is providing can continue and that we can access and help everyone in need.”

For more information visit the KIRT Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/3128551103912469/ or call the helpline on 0116 3053612.