Hundreds of seniors in the Sault and surrounding Algoma region will be receiving food boxes Friday from the United Way Sault Ste. Marie & Algoma District, delivered to their homes with the help of some of the agency’s community partners.
The aid has been made possible through $52,693 received as the United Way Sault Ste. Marie & Algoma District’s share of $9 million provided to United Way Centraide Canada by the federal government.
“This funding, provided through the New Horizons Program, is directed to provide supports for vulnerable seniors (55 and over) who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” stated an April 27 news release from Sault MP Terry Sheehan’s office.
“We’ve partnered up with Algoma Family Services, Sault Search and Rescue and Community Living Algoma, delivering food boxes to 385 seniors tomorrow (Friday, May 1),” said Gary Vipond, United Way Sault Ste. Marie & Algoma District CEO, speaking to SooToday.
“We have lists of seniors who access our programs, so my staff did a blitz and we called everybody we had on our contact list, and we also called other organizations which deal with seniors and we got them to contact seniors as well.”
“We want to find out if seniors are okay and if they have supports in place. Some of them haven’t been out or haven’t spoken to anybody in a long time so we wanted to check in on them,” Vipond said.
“That was one part of calling them, but the second part was ‘what do you need?’ and for the most part the needs were food-related.”
“We called well over 500 people and we’re still getting people calling in, so what we’re doing is 385 people Friday and they're getting boxes of food that should last them two weeks.”
Algoma Family Services, Vipond said, is helping out as an expansion of their own community kitchens program.
“They had about 40 seniors they were dealing with, so when I was told we were getting this money I thought they've got a system that’s working, already in place, so instead of doing something totally new why don’t we expand something we know is working, so Algoma Family Services was very good to expand their program. I suggested up to 400 seniors.”
There will be a second round of food deliveries for seniors, Vipond said.
“We will be distributing probably around 600 boxes between tomorrow and the next round of food deliveries which will be in a week or two.”
Drivers from Algoma Family Services, Sault Search and Rescue and Community Living Algoma will be delivering food boxes to each of the 385 seniors homes.
Deliveries will be taking place between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., the seniors having been already contacted and informed as to what time they can expect their food boxes, Vipond said.
“Seniors today, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, shouldn’t be out doing grocery shopping. They should be keeping in as much as possible. They’re people we should be taking care of.”
“Some of them are low income, some are shut-ins. Most of the people on our list are people who have required assistance from us in the past,” Vipond said.
While the federal government supplied the money, the food itself, both perishable and non-perishable, has been purchased and packed by Harvest Algoma and Lock City Dairies.
Seniors in need of food for the next round of deliveries may contact the United Way Sault Ste. Marie & Algoma District’s office at (705) 256-7476 and press zero.
Staff members will be able to process their requests for food boxes over the phone.
