Love thy neighbour: EVCST volunteers step up to deliver groceries to those in isolation

The Elk Valley COVID Support Team (EVCST) has geared up again to lend a helping hand to those in Fernie that test positive for COVID-19.

As positive cases are expected to self-isolate immediately, volunteers from the EVCST are putting their hands up to step in and help those that have to shut themselves away for community safety, offering to deliver groceries to front doors.

Communications coordinator with the EVCST, Ty Hanlon, said that given Fernie was turning into a bit of a hot spot when it came to COVID-19, it made plenty of sense to get the volunteer group up and running again.

“Now that COVID is in the valley in a substantial way, we figured this was a good a time as ever to bring the EVCST out of hibernation,” he said.

The EVCST had originally launched in March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic, and Hanlon said the feedback back then - and all over again now in 2021 - was very positive.

The EVCST began as an initiative with the Mountainside Community Church (based in Fernie and Sparwood), and quickly became a more wide-ranging service offered to all in the community at the beginning of the pandemic.

The newly restarted service is more limited in what it offers, but still full of volunteers eager to lend a hand to those in need.

Hanlon said that the folks at the Mountainside Community Church had seen a need in the community, and helping out through deliveries was a great way to help out, and to love thy neighbour in difficult times.

Under the current system, those that have tested positive, or have been told to self-isolate due to being a close contact with a positive case can register to have a volunteer from the EVCST pick up their groceries from the Save-on-Foods or Kevin’s Your Independent Grocer in Fernie. Services are only offered in Fernie as that is where most of the cases are.

“Knowing that we live somewhere that people look out for each other is incredible comforting in a time when so many things are uncertain.”

Currently, the EVCST only provides delivery in Fernie on Tuesday and Friday afternoons, and only if you’re one of the few people that have been explicitly told by Interior Health to quarantine due to testing positive or being a close contact.

To register to have groceries delivered, head to the EVCST website at evcst.com.

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