Bag Half Full YOW

We are a free grocery delivery service designed to bridge the gap of accessibility during the COVID-19 pandemic. Operated by medical students from the University of Ottawa, our mission is to help promote community health and protect vulnerable populations during these uncertain times.

This service is to serve the sick, elderly, self-isolating, and immunocompromised with limited ability to go out for groceries. Our volunteers (with police and background checks) are available to pickup and drop off groceries and prescriptions to those in need. Delivery and payment are contactless to help protect all parties and mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Families or individuals unable to leave their house for groceries or prescriptions have two options:

1. Place an online order with one of the major grocery stores, OR 2. Provide ‘Bag Half Full’ with a detailed grocery list and one of our volunteers will do the shopping

There is no delivery or service fee. You can pay for your groceries via e-transfer, cash or cheque. We aim to have groceries delivered within 48 hours of us receiving the form.

If you are unable to fill out this form online, please call 613-863-5598 or 613-558-0229

Website https://www.baghalffull.com/

Student-Senior Isolation Prevention Partnership (SSIPP)

We are contacting you today in regards to our medical student-led initiative, SSIPP|PÉAPI. The Student-Senior Isolation Prevention Partnership (SSIPP)  Ottawa Chapter began as an initiative in partnership with the Home-Based Care Program run by family physicians at Toronto Western Hospital. For more details please visit https://www.ssipp.info/.

The Ottawa Chapter focuses its efforts on decreasing social isolation within our Ottawa community by pairing medical students with seniors. Each week, medical student volunteers will call or video chat with their elderly friend to provide socialization and comfort during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will try our best to pair medical students with seniors based on hobbies, interest, and primary language spoken. All of our medical student volunteers have an up-to-date vulnerable sector police check.

How You Can Help: identify socially vulnerable elderly patients in your community who you believe may benefit from our program. Provide us with their contact information and the primary language they speak through an encrypted (password protected) Excel sheet. Only the 4 Ottawa SSIPP|PÉAPI co-founders will have access to this Excel sheet.

Additional information you may want to include are when they would be available for future phone calls and what their hobbies/interests are in order to help us better match volunteers with students.

Each senior will be paired with a uOttawa medical student volunteer as organized by the SSIPP|PÉAPI co-founders. Medical student volunteers will have access ONLY to their paired senior’s contact information.