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Warkworth volunteer Sue Robertson discovered just what dire straits many seniors were in when she offered to do their shopping during lockdown.
As an active member of Rodney Neighborhood Support, Sue was already alert to the needs of the elderly in her nearby streets and began picking up their groceries from the supermarket for them.
She got even busier when referrals started pouring in from Age Concern, where she works as a service co-ordinator, and the Warkworth New World. They would alert Sue to elderly who were trapped and not sufficiently computer literate to undertake online ordering or pay for groceries via internet banking.
Sue found herself making up to four shopping trips a day and delivering groceries all over the Mahurangi area.
“I was delivering to people with diabetes and kidney transplants – people who were really health compromised,” Sue says.
One English couple stranded in a family bach in Leigh had come to visit their daughter, who lived on the North Shore. They ended up cut off from the rest of their family, who were in separate bubbles.
They had their flights back to England cancelled and had no New Zealand bank account to pay for shopping.
Another elderly couple Sue shopped for found themselves stuck in a bach on Kawau Island, after they were barred from returning to their retirement village in Auckland. Sue would deliver groceries to the ferry terminal at Sandspit for transport to them by boat.
Often Sue paid for the groceries from her own limited funds until she could be reimbursed by Age Concern or the elderly themselves.
Sue says she had to limit the number of shopping trips she made each day and the number of items purchased on each trip to 20, otherwise she would quickly have run out of money.
Fortunately, Age Concern was generally able to reimburse Sue promptly.
“They were trusting me that I am a good person doing it for the right reason, and I was trusting them that they were going to pay me back within 24 hours so that I could help someone else,” she says.
Sue was also assisted by New World who allowed her to jump to the front of queues, and she was able to use a Rodney Neighborhood Support vehicle to make deliveries.
“It’s just been an amazing experience for me because it’s opened my eyes to what issues people have had to deal with,” Sue says.
