THREAD – many are facing great challenges at the moment. I’m going to briefly point up a serious problem I’m involved with. I am a patron of @thefoodchain, a small, brilliant charity giving vital nutritional advice and support to people with HIV 1/

Part of their work involves getting deliveries of groceries to service users. People assume HIV is no longer an issue, but for some people on the margins of society it very much is. They are v vulnerable 2/

You would think they would be perfect candidates to get home deliveries from supermarkets under the government's priority scheme. So would we. The vast majority are immuno-suppressed and must not leave their homes. 3/

The problem is that the system is proving unwieldy. In normal times @thefoodchain has one account with a supermarket and orders deliveries for the usual 40 or so service users who need it at any one time. 4/

As the crisis kicked in, that account was barred from ordering for multiple people. I’ll be frank. I have quietly been attempting to use any clout my public profile gives me, to get to the top people who might be able to get things done. I make no apology for this. Needs must. 5/

Not least because the number of people we are helping has risen into the hundreds, courtesy of referrals from the @NHSuk . Let me say that various people within @sainsburys have done their very best for us 6/

We are exceedingly grateful for all the help people have attempted to give us. And yet weeks on we have just a handful of people set up for deliveries, and are scrabbling to find the volunteers to get food from supermarkets to some of the most vulnerable 7/

We have tried getting on priority lists with other supermarkets but nobody seems able or willing to help @thefoodchain. I’ve held back from saying anything publicly, because we all know just how complex the situation is right not for everyone. 8/

But we’ve got to a point of desperation. So please @sainsburys @tesco @asda @Morrisons @AldiUK @LidlGB @waitrose – any food retailer who delivers on mass scale in London - if there’s anything you can do to help please email me: [email protected] 9/