The Palnackie Village Shop, which last September was bought by the local community, has stepped up its services to provide essential food and supplies to people who are self-isolating.
The shop has introduced a delivery service has changed its opening hours and reworked its volunteer rota to ensure that it can meet the demands of its rural community.
Palnackie Community Trust chairwoman Susan Black said: “Many of our volunteers are over 70 or in at-risk groups so are having to stay at home but the support from the community has been outstanding and now extra volunteers have come forward to help out with the deliveries. They are much needed because many local people now phone in their orders and we have increased the number of customers with accounts.”
When the trust bought the shop with the help of the Scottish Land Fund Grant of £182,250 in 2019 they also bought the adjacent house with the idea that rent would help to make the shop viable. Susan added: “Renovations on the house cannot be completed at the moment, and although we have tenants lined up, we are missing out on the rent so a further emergency grant of £5000 which we have just received from the Scottish Land Fund has come in extremely useful during this critical period.”
