Thanks to a large donation from Sobey's Inc., a new non-profit will be able to help families and individuals that struggle to access groceries.

A $50,000 donation will kickstart the Grocery Link Society in Calgary and surrounding communities, including Airdrie and Cochrane. Founder Paul Hutlet says the aim of the organization is to make groceries more accessible to people that can't always make it to the store due to poor health, age, chronic disease, pregnancy or poverty.

"Through that, we're going to be able to deliver our grocery shopping and delivery program to over 350 people for 16 bi-weekly services each."

The first six deliveries are free, with the opportunity for an additional ten deliveries available for only five dollars thanks to subsidies.

The delivery service is fairly simple. A client submits their grocery list to the Grocery Link Society, who does all the shopping and delivers the groceries to the client. The client still pays the cost of the groceries, but the cost of having someone buy and deliver them is covered.

Hutlet explained that often, people that struggle to access groceries will sink multiple dollars into just getting to a store, meaning they have less money to spend on nutritious food, resulting in poorer health. By taking part in free grocery deliveries, a person is freed up to spend more money on healthier food. 

"We've allocated enough money out of that initial kickstart donation to 37 individuals in each of the outlying communities, and then the rest obviously in Calgary."

A handful of people in Airdrie and Cochrane that qualify for the program due to age, health or pregnancy can take advantage of the program right now.

"Just the struggle to access groceries is affecting their dietary health. That's what we're trying to do is eliminate that stress and cost of access so that we can improve their health."

Hutlet says that the non-profit will eventually be able to help more people in Airdrie and Cochrane

 

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