In late April 2020 during the weekly Pandemic Emergency Housing and Homelessness meeting, concern was expressed that the people being sheltered in Motels were challenged with getting to OSHaRE to get meals while practicing social distancing during lock-down.

A quick brainstorm with all the partners resulted in a year-long program that has delivered almost 10 000 meals to motels.

January of 2021 was the busiest month with over 1200 meals delivered. The fourth week of February was the largest single week with 370 meals delivered.

The program had to be safe; the hot OSHaRE meal had to be delivered within a 30 minute time frame to ensure food safety. This limited the program to a limited number of motels, specifically Owen Sound and Chatsworth based motels.

Grey County funds the daily mileage cost, with Habitat for Humanity delivering April to November, the United Way November to present. Staffing costs have been covered by the partner organizations.

How it works:
Daily YMCA Housing, M’Wikwedong and the Women’s Centre all communicate with OSHARE how many people they are sheltering and at what motels.

OSHARE cooks and assembles their meals, along with frozen meals prepared by the St Aiden’s Frozen Meal program, which are then place in coolers and picked up by United Way staff who deliver them to the identified motels.

On Fridays the people receive Friday’s supper (hot), Saturday lunch supper (cold) Sunday lunch and supper (frozen).

On Mondays United Way staff make an extra run with a Monday lunch.

Who it is helping:
There are individuals and there are families sheltering in motels. Most are looking for long-term housing but due to the rental costs and housing crisis, it is an on going struggle.

source: media release, United Way of Bruce Grey