Background
The Québec response to the COVID-19 pandemic requires seniors 70 and over to self-isolate. This places this segment of the population in a difficult position when it comes to access to essential necessities. Seniors with limited or no access to social networks and the Internet are especially at risk to get food, which might make them leave their homes to purchase groceries and other essentials.
The proposed NDG coordinated community response project aims to respond to some of the needs of seniors by putting in place a phone line through which volunteers take essential grocery orders and relay the order to collaborating grocery stores, which in turn deliver the groceries to isolated individuals.
What we are doing
A number of community groups and organizations in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (NDG) neighbourhood of Montreal are working together to respond to some of the needs of seniors. We created a volunteer phonline in collaborating with a local grocer, to take essential orders from callers and deliver groceries within three days. While providing support to existing grocery store services this project offers a friendly remote shopping experience for the client.
The project requires a collaboration with the local grocery store(s) and a team of volunteers, supported by a project manager and project coordinator. Several tools, for the set up of the project are available here, though some may require minor adaptations depending on the realities of your sector/territory and the evolution of the situation.
Our goals
The project has three main goals: