A grocery store owner and her husband are handing out parcels of hand sanitiser and face masks to the sick and elderly in central Scotland to help protect them against the coronavirus.

Asiyah Javed started the project after meeting an old woman who was upset that she had been unable to buy hand soap at her local supermarket because shelves had been emptied.

“I decided then to do something for the elderly,” Javed, 34, from Stenhousemuir, near Falkirk, told AFP.

“I came back to the store and packed some hand wash and hand sanitiser and face masks into wee bags and posted on Facebook, saying there would be free delivery for the elderly and infirmed customers.”

Javed and her husband Jawad got to work and were soon packing and delivering parcels to every home they could find in the area with an elderly person living in it.

“We used our own money to fund this project but we had a few customers who had been sending in envelopes with 20 pounds ($24) and 10 pounds because they want to contribute,” said Javed.

“When we arrive with the parcels, they give us a hug and they are very happy — they say 'thank you'. They are really happy we are doing it for them.”

One recipient, 91-year-old Senga Benfell, said the COVID-19 pandemic reminded her of when she was younger.

“The only one thing I ever experienced (like this) was when the kids took scarlet fever,” she said.

“There was a time when all of the kids at the school had to be immunised and everything. You were forced to get it done... that was a right worrying time especially for folk with families.”

Her neighbour Mary Tripney, 80, said she had been having a hard time finding basics like toilet paper at the supermarket because of panic-buying.

She said hoarding was almost more worrying than the virus, which had made the store owners' delivery all the more welcome.

“There was not a toilet roll on the shelves,” she said of a recent visit to the shops.

“I was lucky to get a kitchen roll.” At the corner shop, customers trickle in and out, many leaving with the items they can't live without — soap, chocolate, milk, toilet paper and cigarettes.

Javed says getting through hard times is simple.

“We need to work together. If we work as a community, we will all be fine,” she says.