ST. ANDREWS, N.B. -- A new service in St. Andrews, N.B. is ensuring everyone in the community has what they need to get by during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The town of St. Andrews has partnered with the local Kiwanis Club to create a free service that delivers essential goods to the homes of residents.
“All you have to do is give us your name, your phone number, your address, and we will bring the groceries right to your house, drop them off on your step and you never have to interact whatsoever,” says Joe Craswell, who owns a grocery store.
Approximately 20 trained drivers go from business to business twice a day picking up orders.
“They stand back, they've all been trained on how to handle the groceries and the products and to sanitize everything down, and they all wear gloves and we have a whole protocol to make sure they're safe and the people they deliver to are safe,” says Paul Nopper, senior administrator with the town of St. Andrews.
So far, there have been over 200 deliveries. Around 180 of those have been groceries, but there have also been orders for items from the pharmacy and hardware store.
“There are just some people who feel very vulnerable, we have an aging population in our town and some of them don't want to be out in crowds,” says St. Andrews Mayor Doug Naish.
The program volunteers are also doing check-ins.
“We have 92 people we are checking in on right now,” says Guy Groulx, a town councillor in St. Andrews.
“We've established a register of self-isolated people, we have 36 people in town that are self-isolated. We check on them to make sure they have all the essentials.”
In total, there are about 60 volunteers in the program, but the group is looking for more people to lend a helping hand.
“Everyone is banding together as a community to help our community ride through this crisis,” says Groulx.
