MONTREAL -- After Premier Francois Legault said volunteers were needed to help out during the COVID-19 pandemic on Thursday, thousands of Quebecers heeded the call. But some are questioning whether enough is being done to protect those volunteers' health.
Kim Reid of Pierrefonds' On Rock Community Services said her organization has been flooded by people looking to lend a hand.
“What we're known for is, we never turn down a volunteer,” she said. “I'm turning away people that I would welcome in the door every day of the week if this wasn't going on.”
While 12,000 Quebecers signed up on a government website dedicated to the volunteer initiative on the first day, Reid said the influx comes with its own problems. She noted it's impossible to tell whether volunteers have been practising social distancing and that a positive test in a volunteer would force them to close, leaving 220 families looking for another way to find food. Now, she's instead relying on people she's worked with in the past and turning away any new recruits.
“The initiative is well intentioned and I applaud (Legault) for all the work he's doing and trying to help, but volunteers I don't know is not helpful,” said Reid.
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Despite the dangers, some say the feel a responsibility to go out and help. Jimmy Ung, a teacher at College Reine Marie is among those who responded to Legault's call.
“It mobilized us even more. I have different teachers who wrote to me and told me they wanted to volunteer,” he said.
Moisson Montreal's Richard Daneau said his organization could have close its doors during the crisis, but workers felt they were needed now more than ever.
“It would have been safer for Moisson Montreal to close their shop and say 'We're all going home because we don't want to take any chances,'” he said. “It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any moral sense.”
Daneau said Moisson Montreal, which distributes food to 250 food banks, charities and other organizations, is bracing for a surge in demand as Canadian unemployment skyrockets.
"It's going to be coming," he said. "We see all the people that went to unemployment. We will be hit by a wave of new demand."
A third of the organizations that Moisson Montreal works with have temporarily closed because of COVID-19. While Sun Youth's food bank is still open, the rest of its operations have closed.
"For sure the need is going to increase," said Sun Youth spokesperson Ann St-Arnaud. "We're already getting more calls than we were before."
At St-Henri's Welcome Hall Mission, staff and volunteers are still coming in but are taking precautions such as closing the free grocery store. Instead, food is handed out to 500 clients each day. While the mission is taking volunteers, Sam Watts said they are asking questions first.
“We ask questions about where they've been, did they travel, have they been close to somebody with symptoms. That sort of thing,” he said.
Watts said he's seen social workers turn up to collect food for clients who can't leave their homes.
"Food is a basic essential of human life, so if people are hungry or home alone, we need to be able to help them," he said.
