‘WE LOVE HELPING OUT’
Community rallies to assist the elderly, those in need during virus lockdown
With their regular work having nearly dried up — like so many businesses during the COVID -19 crisis — the Men in Kilts have switched gears in Windsor and are making food-bank deliveries and doing the grocery shopping for some of the city’s most vulnerable.
“We’re in the same dire straits as everyone else, but I think this is what everybody should be doing,” said local franchise owner Ben Snow.
On Friday, between the few regular jobs they’re still contracted to do, the company’s four workers in four trucks were making 60 doorto-door drop offs for a downtown food bank, as well as doing the shopping for some seniors.
“We’re focusing on people who don’t have any other means of help, people in dire need,” said Snow.
At a time when “community” is needed more than ever, the head of the local United Way said individuals, companies and organizations in Windsor and Essex County are stepping up efforts to help.
“Literally every day, people are reaching out to us, asking, ‘Let us know what you need from us,’ ” CEO Lorraine Goddard said Friday.
Programs for the most vulnerable, such as food banks and Meals on Wheels, were teetering on the edge of collapse a week ago before a coalition of service providers launched an “emergency food action” initiative and a public call for help. The COVID-19 crisis remains acute, but Goddard said the community has begun responding.
Meals on Wheels, which provides prepared meals for homebound and often isolated seniors, continues with new bodies stepping in to fill in for the volunteers — mostly seniors themselves — who had been providing the deliveries before but who are now among those who are self-isolating.
“It’s something everybody should be doing,” said Men in Kilts’ Snow. “We love helping out, and it’s been awesome.”
Another organization, the Children’s Aid Society, has drummed up “literally an army of volunteers” to drive those in its care to appointments and to provide other assistance, said Goddard.
“It’s amazing to see how the community is rallying,” she said.
To help co-ordinate the community response and more efficiently link those in need with those who can help, Green Shield Canada offered its help and is establishing a hotline expected to be ready by the end of next week and operated by its staff.
“Our biggest concern are seniors,” said Charles Rosen, a vice-president of the national health and dental benefits provider. “When you think about our volunteers, the people who have the time to help, they’re our seniors,” he said, adding they’re the ones who now need help.
Green Shield’s hotline will be based out of the company’s Windsor contact centre with local redeployed staff able to point volunteers to where they might be needed or provide information to seniors and others needing help to access food or other assistance, including crisis counselling.
Given the coronavirus-triggered disruption in donations, volunteers and staffing, Goddard said, one of the problems in the local food-bank system is keeping up with which ones are supplied and open on any given day.
“At the beginning, it was, ‘Oh, my goodness, how are we going to tackle this problem?’ The hotline will help us better co-ordinate our emergency food response,” she said.
Snow said he’s still paying his workers, whether they’re cleaning windows, gutters and houses or delivering food to vulnerable seniors stranded in their homes.
“We had a bunch of guys and a bunch of trucks sitting around, so we thought, ‘How can we help out?’ ”
Snow said the response has been “overwhelming,” so much so that Men in Kilts has been forced to focus on “people in dire need — we hope others understand.”
To find out more about how to help or how to get help, visit the United Way’s COVID Care Facebook page or email the agency: info@weareunited.com.