A new delivery service from Immigrant Services Guelph-Wellington (ISGW) aims to help prevent seniors from being exposed to COVID-19.
Sandra Cocco, the executive director of ISGW, says the seniors’ delivery program is specifically designed to help participants navigate online shopping.
“Online shopping, everyone’s doing it,” says Cocco, “But it’s either the cost of the food is inflated or there is a hefty delivery charge, so this is free for seniors and it’s contactless delivery, we do the deliveries from nine to five and we will just leave it on their porch.”
With many seniors having never shopped online before, she explains the first component of the program is how to shop online safely.
Joining in a virtual workshop, seniors will learn how to register for an online shopping account, add items to their cart and purchase items online.
“We’re gonna use the Walmart portal as an example,” says Cocco, “We selected Walmart because in case they needed other things, like medicine, clothing, whatever, it fits a wide variety of needs at the Walmart store and it’s fairly close to where our clients live.”
After that, participants join a list where they can notify ISGW when they have purchased groceries or medications online, which a volunteer driver will pick up and deliver to their home.
“The senior has to do the shopping themselves,” she emphasises, “We wanted to make that a part of the program to give seniors some new tools, skills that they can use and show them that it’s not that hard and walk them through the process.”
Nine people have volunteered as drivers and will be dispatched to deliver groceries or medications to different households.
“They get a little honorarium for participating through the United Way.”
Cocco adds they have already run one virtual workshop for the delivery program and plan to run a second workshop on April 9 at 10 a.m. Those who are interested in joining can register here.
“They’re not going to participate first (in the delivery program) until they get the online training.”
Receiving support from the United Way Emergency Fund, the program was proposed prior to the vaccination roll out. The service is scheduled to end in Winter 2021.
“we were thinking about what it was going to be like for seniors to get out and get their needs met and get their groceries done,” Cocco recalls, “And what about seniors who don’t have a lot of money, and can’t afford the 10 dollar delivery fee from many of these places.”
While the program is geared toward seniors, Cocco mentions clients in need can also access this service.
“If we have somebody who, for whatever reason, could not go out to get their groceries, and they’re a client with our organization, we would definitely support them.” she says.
