Feeding the Herm(ites)

Monday 20 April 2020

With Herm closed to everyone except those lucky enough to live there, the island's few residents have been expressing their gratitude to those who are keeping them supplied with refreshments and activities.

That includes the owner of Herm and Guernsey Oysters, the Herm Island Skipper and a number of other volunteers.

Collectively they've been making sure the 65 people currently living in Herm, which will include some permanent residents and some seasonal workers, are all getting their essential supplies.

With no Travel Trident services between Herm and St Peter Port since the end of March, or for the foreseeable future, no one has been able to travel to or from Guernsey to go shopping themselves.

Instead they have had goods collected for them from shops in Guernsey, dropped to St Peter Port Harbour, sailed across to Herm on the cargo boat and then sanitised before being distributed among them.

The Olio volunteers have also been helping to feed Herm residents too.

Pictured: Peaceful at the best of times, this Spring is the quietest in living memory in Herm.

Herm's managers have said they are "eternally grateful to everyone" who has helped to get supplies to the island.

In particular they have publicly thanked Justin de Carteret from Herm & Guernsey Oysters. He spends time working in Herm as well as in Guernsey so he knows people in both islands. He has been arranging collections of food and household items and prescriptions and even helped arrange a puppy's vaccination appointment.

Between him and Tom, the Herm Skipper, the goods are transported between St Peter Port and Herm's harbours before a group of islanders sanitise and distribute them. 

William Knight, Emily Stamp and Morgan Jones have also been thanked for their help, having "really gone the extra mile" to keep supply chains going for Herm.

They all have close links to Herm but live in Guernsey at the moment. They helped do shopping and ran errands for Herm residents last week before delivering any goods to Mr de Carteret at the Harbour.

Herm's managers said: "Thank you Justin, Will, Emily & Morgan and thank you to everyone who is helping to keep us Hermites fed!"

With Olio growing in popularity over the two years since it launched in Guernsey, it now has a number of volunteers working with supermarkets and other retailers to limit the amount of food waste in the island.

As part of that work, the Olio volunteers are using the App to share food items among people who are isolating during the lockdown period.

As well as that, the volunteers have arranged for dairy products and fresh vegetables to be taken to Herm on its cargo boat.

The items donated by Olio were taken to St Peter Port Harbour by volunteers from St John Ambulance and then taken to Herm on the cargo boat.

Pictured top: All images and social media courtesy of Herm Island Olio on Facebook.