(Image Credit: Courtesy, Glenn Hilke)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

COVID-19 CHECKS

Kamloops meal group working with IHA to assist city’s homeless with potential virus symptoms

Apr 19, 2020 | 11:34 AM

KAMLOOPS — Interior Health will be working with a group of local volunteers today to ensure the city’s homeless population with potential COVID-19 symptoms can get medical help, or form an isolation plan.

IH will be teaming up with the Lived Experience Community Life and Peer Skills program, and the Kamloops COVID Meal Train to help people who may not have a way to deal with their symptoms.

Coordinator Glenn Hilke says in a release that the event will take place this afternoon (Apr. 19) at the back of the United Church (on St. Paul Street and 4th Avenue) from 2:30 – 4:00 p.m.

Another session will take place tomorrow in the Mustard Seed parking lot (181 Victoria St W) from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m, and 4:00 – 5:00 p.m.

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“We approached them and we said you’re welcome to come and bring a team of street nurses, and see if there’s a way to begin a process of doing larger scale – I don’t want to necessarily say testing because that’s up to them and what their capacity is – but at least to have some interaction on a larger scale at one time with this vulnerable community.”

The meal train, and lived experience members banded together on March 28 to make sure the city’s street entrenched population could have something to eat, and Hilke says so far they have provided 3,000 meals to people in need.

Hilke says the emergency food security meals draw a couple hundred people experiencing homelessness, chronic poverty, living with mental health challenges or addictions that could be at higher risk of infection.

With that, Interior Health will be interacting with this population to direct them to medical services if needed, or help them formulate an isolation plan. Hilke says IH has told them that several motel rooms have been set aside for isolation purposes within the community, but at this point he feels some preventative measures would be helpful.

“A centre where people can come in from being on the street. Call it a day time drop-in, because we don’t have enough shelter space right now for everybody that needs it. But so far nothing has been set up, and I’m hoping that that is going to happen,” he explains, “These kinds of new measures have taken place in other cities even smaller than Kamloops, so I think that is a good idea to be done before there is an outbreak”

Along with today’s event, the group is focused on trying to bring a breakfast option to the people living in poverty, as the previous meal offerings around town have been put on hold due to the pandemic.

Hilke says to do this, the group is looking for donations of simple breakfast items such as fruit, granola bars, along with take out containers, and disposable cups with lids. Meal supplies can be dropped off at 131 Columbia Street on the tables found on the front porch, or monetary donations can be e-transferred to glennhilke@yahoo.com.

So far, Hilke says the community response has been strong, and they’ve been grateful for the roughly 250 people who have signed up to help.

“It’s not easy to maintain a project like this every day, seven days a week. We’re approaching a month that we’ll have been operating like this. We don’t know how long this is going to go on for, but the community is obviously dedicated and passionate about doing this.”