A four-day application process for financial aid to assist those who lost food due to hydro outages after the Dec. 22 ice storm resulted in 907 grocery cards valued at $45,350 being distributed to 478 households in Guelph and the county.
County director of Ontario Works Stuart Beumer said the county originally planned to take applications for $50 and $100 for individuals and families respectively from Jan. 7 to 9, but extended it to 4pm on Jan. 10.
The cards were handed out on a first come, first served basis after residents provided county officials with a self-declaration on their eligibility.
The eligibility requirements were that applicants had experienced a power outage of at least 48 hours during the ice storm, had lost perishable food due to the power outage and would experience financial hardship to replace the lost food.
The application process required residents to disclose the name and number of family members in a household and a home address, as well as provide a verbal declaration that they qualified for the assistance. The county received 1,228 grocery cards valued at $61,400 which was anticipated to assist 650 county and Guelph residents.
“The card distribution to areas outside of Toronto was determined by the province. They had approximately $450,000 in cards to allot between the various municipalities and we received $61,400,” Beumer said.
“We provided the province with information received from hydro authorities as to the number of households that were without power for more than 48 hours and it is our understanding that the province took this information into account when allotting the cards between the municipalities outside of Toronto.”
Of those card recipients, 95 per cent are from the county with the remaining 5% from Guelph, Beumer said.
“This corresponds to the percentage of individuals who experienced prolonged power outages,” he added.
Locally, left over cards will be returned to the Canadian Red Cross in accordance with an agreement reached between the organization and the provincial government.
“Today has been steady and we have now been able to assist over 478 households,” Beumer said of the activity on Jan. 10.
“The county is pleased to have assisted in the distribution of 907 grocery cards to 478 households,” he added.
“I’d like to thank all of the county who pulled together to deliver this assistance program on a very short notice. We were able to efficiently process applications and ensure that grocery cards were provided to residents.”
