Food delivery delights
A much-needed grocery delivery has delighted 82-year-old Olive Crossan but she is frustrated at how many phone calls it took to get organised.
The Timaru woman was down to her last cup of tea by the time Civil Defence delivered vegetables, cheese, margarine, bananas, and tea bags to her home on Saturday afternoon.
‘‘It’s nice to have a fresh sandwich,’’ Crossan told The Timaru Herald on Sunday. ‘‘I gave a list of what I wanted over the phone and they went to the shop and got it for me.’’
Crossan, who was given a number to ring when she next needs groceries, paid with cash when they arrived. She has about $50 cash budgeted for groceries during the lockdown and has no plans to give her Eftpos card pin number out if she runs out.
‘‘That’s the tricky bit, especially if this lockdown goes for over a month.’’
The octogenarian has lived alone in a unit for the past 10 years and has no family, friends, or home help who can pick up groceries for her. ‘‘There must be other people out there who don’t have family and friends, so how they’re getting on I really don’t know.’’
She picked up the phone last week and started making calls to organise some groceries.
She called Civil Defence first and was told to ring Timaru Taxis, who in turn told her to ring Countdown, at which point she discovered the supermarket did not take phone orders. ‘‘Everybody seemed to put me on to somebody else.’’
A friend had made some calls on her behalf, and on Saturday she was contacted by Civil Defence saying they would pick up and deliver her groceries.
Civil Defence public information manager Stephen Doran wanted to reassure people who contacted the call centre they would get the help they needed.
The call centre first heard from Crossan on Friday, he said. ‘‘We advised her of her options. A friend later called to say none of the options are working for her, so we delivered a bag of shopping to her.’’
Doran hoped Crossan’s story did not dissuade people from ringing the call centre at 0800 24 24 11, open from 7am to 7pm seven days a week.
Timaru Taxis director’s chairwoman Barbara McHaffie said Crossan had been advised to make an order with Countdown and let the supermarket know the taxi service would be doing the delivery. ‘‘We’re offering $10 deliveries within town for prescriptions and groceries. There may be a driver or two that can do some grocery shopping for them, because I have heard there’s a lot of people out there struggling.’’
The taxi service has cut its times from 24 hours to 5.30am to 7.30pm, with its call centre shifting from Invercargill to Timaru for the lockdown.