The Salvation Army knows a thing or two about tough times, as it’s aimed at helping people through their life storms. The quarantine and global economic difficulties made them summon up all their strength to ensure that everyone who asks for help in the Estevan area gets it no matter what the new day brings.
The Estevan Salvation Army has been open throughout the past almost three months, but now, as Saskatchewan is approaching Phase 3 of reopening, the organization is slowly getting back to providing more services to their clients. Their thrift store, located on Fourth Street, is now open with shelves filled at 60 per cent and other changes in place.
Director of ministry Ronza Reynard talked about what people can expect.
“What customers are going to notice when they come in right away, there is (display) in our building that has a few sets of (general COVID-related) rules that they need to follow,” said Reynard.
They strongly ask people to physical distance and follow the arrows on the floor as in most other stores. The shelves will look emptier, but only to ensure there is less touching and handling. They are allowed to let up to 14 customers in at a time and staff will be monitoring the situation inside.
“People will see more staff on the floor interacting. We will have hand sanitizer, gloves available for people when they come in if they choose to use these things. And we’ve got our Plexiglas shields up at the till, so we can have the no-contact service that way,” said Reynard.
She added that while some regulations they follow are similar to what other stores do, other things are a bit different since it’s a thrift store and most of the items they sell are used.
Donations are being accepted again, but all newly brought pieces have to be set aside for three days before they can be displayed at the store. Although they couldn’t accept anything for a while, Reynard said they still have lots for people to choose from.
The staff now won’t spend time arranging new items at the store throughout the day as they did before. Instead, they will put the new inventory out daily during the after-hours, which will allow them more time to clean and help customers.
All the jewellery will be behind counters for now, and staff will help customers browse it. The same will happen to toys.
“A lot of people, when they come into our store, their children run right to the toy section. That’s got to stop. And it’s part of the rules, if you are bringing children into the store they need to be with you at all times,” said Reynard.
The change room will be open with regular cleaning in place. But they are asking people to focus on what they intend to buy and try not to touch too many items, as all pieces they touch but didn’t buy will have to go into a three-day quarantine before they can go back out on the shelves.
“At the end of the day, there is pretty big cleaning that has to be done. That’s why we have our store closing at 4 o’clock every day,” said Reynard, adding that the staff will be there for another two hours just to clean and disinfect the building and the inventory.
While the thrift store was closed for a while, the food bank probably experienced its busiest times throughout its history.
Demand for May was over 50 per cent higher than last year and even higher than April. The Salvation Army was anticipating it to be busier, because a lot of people may have had some extra money in April with the introduction of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit that at that time was often retroactive for March as well. The extra GST cheque also helped the situation. However, by the end of spring, a lot of families found themselves in need of more support. Fortunately, since the beginning of the pandemic, the Estevan Salvation Army has been receiving a lot of donations from organizations and individuals in the community.
They are doing most of their shopping themselves trying to balance between stretching their dollar a little further and shopping locally to support the community. Reynard keeps saying that if people want to donate, they can do it in any way that works for them, and the Salvation Army is equally happy to see food or cheques coming in, as it helps them do their job.
“It’s really nice that we are getting this support and we were able to serve over 300 people this (past) month alone,” said Reynard.
The shelves at the food bank are definitely not as full as they were after Christmas, but so far with the community support, the Salvation Army has been handing the demand pretty well. And even though it’s been busy, they were able to keep up with it and plan to stick to the operation they have in place now going forward.
“It’s been steady. And we do it differently now,” said Reynard. “Even when we reopen, the food bank is going to continue the same way it has during this whole COVID-19.”
If someone wants to access the food bank they need to phone in for an appointment, as the Salvation Army is still trying to limit the number of physical contacts.
The Estevan Salvation Army again opened its doors to Envision Counselling and Support Centre’s walk-in clinics on Wednesdays and Thursdays. They also went on with their volunteer income tax program until the end of May, helping people to prepare their taxes.
The seniors’ lunch that was introduced earlier this year and was put on pause at the very beginning of the pandemic will remain on hold for the rest of the season due to seniors’ susceptibility to the virus and also restrictions on gatherings. The organization will re-evaluate it come September and October, considering recommendations from the Saskatchewan Health Authority, the government as well as the Salvation Army’s territorial headquarters.
“We found it to be successful, so we are hoping to continue this... in the fall.”
With no summer camps planned this year, the Salvation Army isn’t fundraising towards sending kids anywhere. But the Canada Post food drive so far is still a go, however, no dates were set for it yet.
“They are willing to do another food drive. They just need to wait on their end for Canada Post to give them the authorization to do it.”
More details will be announced when they become available.
Reynard also said they know that times are tough for everybody, which makes every donation even more valuable.
Even though the Estevan Salvation Army still keeps alternating their hours and is currently closed on Mondays, their main goal is to keep staff and customers safe and remain open.
“We are just excited to get our store open and have some of our customers back in there, see some of the faces we haven’t seen in the last two and a half months. It’s been a long couple of months,” said Reynard.
