The United Way of Chatham-Kent is providing a more streamlined support mechanism to help people during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During a news conference Monday afternoon, United Way of Chatham-Kent CEO Steve Pratt said the response to the pandemic between local non-profits started out slightly uncoordinated.
"We know if it continues to stay fragmented we will end up leaving people behind," Pratt said.
To fix that, the United Way has launched a municipality-wide partnership in the non-profit sector to support people who could not afford to prepare for the pandemic and its impact.
According to Pratt, the United Way is currently seeing a higher increase than ever before of people reaching out for assistance. He added that many times, individuals who have never had to ask for help before find it difficult to do so which often time snowballs into a crisis situation.
The initiative, Local Love in a Global Crisis, allows people to easily get assistance if they need it by visiting ckgives.ca.
The website provides a detailed listing of emergency food support resources, mental health support, business support, and education support in one centralized location.
One of the resources available includes the Student Nutrition Food Assistance Fund.
According to Jennelle Arnew with CK Public Health, the program is meant to help families with children who need financial help with purchasing food. The children would normally be assisted by the student nutrition program that operates in all Chatham-Kent schools.
"You can register for a [grocery] gift card for $20 for the first two kids then after that it's $10 for every additional child," explained Arnew.
Local Love in a Global Crisis also allows people to offer help to those in need by providing the option to sign up to volunteer or donate money.
Mayor Darrin Canniff said he's received dozens of calls from individuals and businesses asking how they can offer support right now.
"At no other time do we need the community more than now," said Canniff.
Besides visiting ckgives.ca, Canniff said one of the quickest ways for people to get help is by calling the United Way directly at 2-1-1.