Free delivery of groceries for vulnerable Calgarians through crowd funding campaign

Seeing a need within his own family, the owner of a grocery delivery company has started a crowd-funding campaign to expand the service to help vulnerableCalgarians.

"We're not in this for short term gain, we're in this for long-term sustainability," Paul Hutlet, founderofThe Grocery Link,told the Calgary Eyeopener.

"We're a new company and we feel that the more we can give to our community, the more the community will support us back. And the need, we're learning, is so great, it's just unbelievable."

The servicecharges customers to shop for and deliver groceries, however those hampered by age or disability can now apply to receive the service for free, but they'll still have to pay for the food.

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Hutlet said hespent more than two years studying the grocery delivery market in Calgary and was surprised by his findings.

"I actually started the company because the current grocery shopping delivery services that are out there don't focus and don't help the people who struggle to access groceries the most," he said.

"For example, my mother, she has rheumatoid arthritis, she's not able to shop in the store, she's not able to order groceries online. My sister has vertigo, so she's not able to drive to the store to pick up."

Some non-profit organizations provide the service free of charge to seniors, said Hutlet, but many other people in need are being overlooked.

"You have to be eligible due to age, income, not having family in the area," he said.

"So there's an abundance of people who have disabilities, MS, cancer, arthritis, the list goes on and on and on, who are struggling to access groceries."

A mother of two,Naomi Powell was diagnosed with leukemia in thespring and said shedoesn't have the energy to shop. With herhusbandbusy taking care of everything else,having one less thing to worry about such as groceries has been helpful.

"It took that stress off of me, so it helped me focus more on what medicines do I need to be taking, or what things do Ineed to be doing to get better faster," she said.

Since launching the crowd-funding campaign in September, Hutlet has raised enough to help 30 people, but said there are already another 140 names on a waiting list.

Every $100 raised through the crowd-funding campaign means six weeks of service for one person.

With files from the Calgary Eyeopener