‘Doing whatever good we can to help’
Calgarian delivers hampers and good wishes
A masked Charlie Luong — carrying a food hamper and other essentials for a family quarantining in Calgary’s northeast — exchanged yelled pleasantries from the sidewalk with the likewise masked family on their porch on a day he was making deliveries.
A nearby resident and his dog surely thought they were arguing, said Luong with a laugh.
It was one of thousands of deliveries Luong and his team at the Centre for Newcomers have made over the past 11 months to Calgarians who found themselves without work or in isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We enjoy even a simple hello while I drop off the hampers, knowing some of the people are by themselves in quarantine and don’t have anyone to chat with,” Luong said.
The need was immediate as the deadly virus spread in Alberta. Since April 1, the local organization, in partnership with Actiondignity, has helped nearly 18,000 Calgarians. “It’s tough out there right now and we need to be doing whatever good we can to help,” said Luong.
During the early days of COVID-19 — when shelves were emptied of toilet paper, flour and other essentials — Luong recalls being on the receiving end of dirty looks and rude comments from shoppers who assumed his overflowing cart was due to hoarding instead of preparing up to 35 hampers per day for delivery.
In early December, the number of active cases in Calgary’s upper northeast peaked at 1,657 among its approximately 115,00 residents, and Luong and his team delivered about 150 hampers per day to families in isolation.
Calgary’s upper northeast experienced one of the highest active case rates in Alberta for much of the last year, due largely, it is thought, to socio-economic factors such as housing density and working conditions.