If you ask people in other communities, you'll soon realize Elliot Lake's Age Friendly Delivers city-sponsored grocery buying and delivery service is unique.
The service has allowed local seniors to order groceries on the phone or online and have them delivered to their doors.
It was initiated by the City of Elliot Lake in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic spread.
Monday night Elliot Lake City Council will be asked to consider extending Age Friendly Delivers for people over 70 by another three months to the end of June 2021.
In making that request, Elliot Lake's Manager, Economic Development, Ashten Vlahovich, cited recently confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Elliot Lake, Algoma and neighbouring Sudbury regions that demonstrate the on-going risk of continued exposure and community spread. She also noted that vaccinations will soon be rolled out in the community for people 80 years of age and over.
In her report, Vlahovich wrote, "Being considered a ‘retirement’ community, Elliot Lake has a higher average age than most Canadian cities resulting in a high percentage of vulnerable persons, and many without local family for support.
"Knowing this staff, identified potential issues with the recommended isolation for such a large percentage of the population as (being) access to necessities and contact while in isolation."
Last spring, the City developed two programs concurrently with the recommendation for vulnerable people to isolate to stem the spread of the infection.
They were Age Friendly Delivers and Age Friendly Checks-In.
Age Friendly Delivers was created as a grocery and personal care delivery service partnered with both local grocery stores while Age Friendly Checks-In was a daily contact service for those in self-isolation without local support to check on them.
After a few months Age Friendly Checks-In was taken over by staff from.the Elliot Lake Family Health Team.
Provincial lockdown orders were lifted as of Feb. 16 just as there was a local cluster of positive tests. Vlahovich said that has continued to impact program demand.
With oversight through the Economic Development Department, there is one dedicated delivery staffer, two staff from the Recreation and Culture Department for taking orders, along with multiple staff in the Treasury Department for processing and logging invoices, payments and program stats.
During the provincial orders and the local extension of closed facilities, additional staff was redirected to provide shopping and delivery assistance to meet an increased demand.
Since it began, Age Friendly Delivers has been supported across multiple city departments.
As of March 4, 2021 the total number of deliveries was 3,410 while total purchases for the program was $254,984.37 with an average purchase $74.78, and with AFD serving 421 clients.
"Wages for the Age Friendly Delivers were included in 2021 budget process," Vlahovich said. "AFD lead wages, and expenses incurred are recommended to be funded by the COVID-19 Relief Funding from the province, and should not negatively impact the 2021 budget.
Her recommendation goes before City Council at its 7 p.m. meeting Monday.
The meeting will be livestreamed on the city's website.