Ways you can volunteer your time and donate some goods during the Covid-19 pandemic

From donating goods to sharing your time, local organizations need both from volunteers who want to help during the coronavirus pandemic.

Because stockpiling has become a major problem at grocery stores in most cities, food banks have sadly seen significant decreases in donations from them, and others. Canadian Blood Services is also faced with severe shortages of blood due to a number of blood drive cancellations during this outbreak. 

While it’s critical we adhere to social distancing for the foreseeable future, we can still contribute and volunteer for those in need. Here’s how:  

Check in with your circle

video call

Check in with your family, friend and other people in your social network to find out if they may need help. Whether it’s picking up prescriptions, food or sending toilet paper, there are so many opportunities to help at the individual level while still respecting social distance rules.  

Daily Bread Food Bank

The Toronto chapter of the Daily Bread Food Bank needs help now more than ever in supporting hunger-relief efforts to ensure uninterrupted food delivery to neighbours in need. You can make monetary donations; order online from your favourite grocery store and have items delivered directly to their warehouse, or you can drop off non-perishable items to any fire hall in the city.  

https://www.dailybread.ca/covid19/130-organizations-call-for-increase-to-social-assistance/ 

Canada Helps

With a dedicated COVID-19 pandemic response page, you can find an exhaustive list of organizations to donate to, all whom are supplying aid and needed medical supplies for vulnerable populations and food to needy Canadian families. https://www.canadahelps.org/en/donate-to-coronavirus-outbreak-response/ 

Canadian Blood Services 

donating blood

While Manitoba and Quebec have both vocalized a bigger need for donations because of a spike in appointment cancelations, Canadian Blood Services has COVID-19 information online, including new donor screening measures to help keep the national blood supply system safe during the pandemic.  

https://blood.ca/en 

The United Nations

The UN always has opportunities for online volunteering that can be done from your computer. Right now, there is an opportunity for volunteers to create educational and entertaining videos for children during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

https://www.onlinevolunteering.org/en/opportunities 

Kids Help Phone 

woman on phone

Kids Help Phone has noticed a huge jump in the number of young people calling the national hotline about COVID-19, promoting an urgent call for more volunteers to help field the hundreds of calls a day. Every day, Kids Help Phone fields over 1,5000 calls and texts, and given the current pandemic they estimate that number to rise to over 2,000. Looking to train more volunteers to become crisis responders and answer texts, Kids Help Phone will provide 38 hours of training online with support from professional counsellors.  

https://kidshelpphone.ca/