🆘Simply put Calgary is in crisis🆘

Over night, we had more referrals in for food hampers than EVER before😔

Between our outreach collaboration and our food hamper program…we’re finding it hard to keep up

We need help @Crackmacs @PamirCanadian @mikeonshine #yycroads #YYC #YEG We need help with 16 families:

Family

A-2 grandparents raising 5 grandkids

B-single dad, 3kids

C-single mom, 3kids

D-3adults, 6kids

E-2 adults, 3kids

F-senior couple

G-2 adults, 2kids

H-2 adults, 6kids

I-single dad, 2kids

J-single dad, 1kid

K-single dad 3kids

#Yyccc

What a freaking night last night was. If I feel broken after what I experienced and witnessed last night….what do people who sleep rough and outside feel like?

#yyc #yyccc #coldwave #coldweather #Calgary @Crackmacs @GrannyGTArp @EveryAlbertan @Hell_Berta #ableg #yeg The things we heard from people last night were heartbreaking.

We used narcan 12 individual times tonight.

We bandaged 18 suffering from Frostbite.

We handed out over 100 snack packs

This is hard to write but it is true for many. What I’m about to say is a harsh reality of what people go through.

What I am about to say is also the reason why a lot of people don’t ask for help.

People do not ask for help because of the fears and stigmas that exist.

#hope Here Is Something to think about,

What if you were a #singleparent with a #child

You work full time for $15.00/hr

You take home roughly $960.00 per paycheck (bi-weekly after taxes)

#singleparent #parenting #Blessed #grateful #calgary #calgarylife #alberta #yyc

@EveryAlbertan

🚨😔😔😞What a day😞😔😔🚨

Is it ever going to get better?

How can there be so many people in need? So many people that are falling through the cracks?

It is so hard to keep going knowing we can only do so much…but when does one draw the line?

Who helps the helpers? Today was a high stress and difficult to process day filled with so many people who are hurting and lost that it is heartbreaking💔.

We might have to make the difficult decision to close our doors. Too many people in need.

Again,

Who helps the helpers?

🚨WE🆘NEED🚨#YYC’s🆘HELP🚨

We are at a local superstore and we are needing Calgary’s help.

We are filling the last items needed for the special medical food hamper for this senior family. Can anyone help with this?

#Help #YYCCC #YEG #YEGCC #foodie #Food #hampers #HelpNeeded The reason this is a unique hamper is because the senior gentleman we are helping is terminal and has severe dietary restrictions that have been set by his doctor

We have worked with his doctor to provide what he needs to be comfortable as he possibly can be.
#SocialGood #BeGood

Earlier today we were in downtown #yyc handing out water & gatorade and fruit, when we decided to stop & have a break by the Cat Cafe...when we came upon a senior lady rummaging through the city's garbage bins.

#Yyccc #Calgary #Alberta #Canada #SeniorLiving #seniorcare #Seniors We thought she was looking for bottles to turn in for money but we were wrong. She was looking for both bottles & she was also taking food out of the bins & putting it in her cart.

As soon as we saw that we went over to offer her our help.

#Help #Community #Compassion #BeKind

This morning we saw something we will NEVER forget.

We were at the #Walmart in Southeast #Calgary. We were shopping for some groceries when my stepson saw someone take a package of meat and put it under their shirt and then slowly walk over to their cart. #Food #Hungry #Alberta This person had very few things in their cart. My stepson knows what I do here at @HarvestHillsYYC & he asked if we could help them.

I said yes we could but that this person would feel ganged up on if we all walked over to them, so I told him to stay here and that I’d walk over.

We have a serious emergency.

Late this afternoon we were contacted by a senior named “Helen”. She only had one meal left in her kitchen.

She called us for help and we are helping.

We will be using the last of our available funds to get her some much needed groceries. #YYC #YEG We will hopefully be giving her enough groceries for an entire month so she doesn’t have to worry about having to choose between medications/food, food/electricity, food/rent.

Too many #Calgarians are being ignored and forgotten. Too many #Calgarians are afraid to ask for #help.

🚨Emergency Help Needed ASAP🚨

Meet Troy MacDonald he is a houseless gentleman who was asking for help at the Tim Horton’s on Country Hills.

He was standing in the rain shivering with nothing but a mask and a thin jacket standing next to a bike. My volunteer (D) and went through the drive thru and offered our help.

We asked what he needed and he broke down and asked us for a tent and a coffee.

We said “how about we do you one better? How about we help you get out of the rain and into the hotel for a week?”

😳🆘We need help!🆘😳

We need to raise $870.00 by Monday afternoon or we will not be able to fill the last four requests we have on our list!

Two requests are for seniors and one is for a single mom and one is for a single parent who has left an abusive marriage and needs help! If you can help…we are at the point of begging. Our volunteers are out in full force today! So if you see any of us out and about come say 👋 Hello 👋

We have 4 hampers left to fill so please help us!! We do not want to have to turn these families away!!

#YYC #YEG #YQL #HELP

This is going to be a hard thread for some to read. Some of you might cry, Some just shed a few tears, Some of you may be angry & outraged at what has transpired...But as we have come to learn, this is the reality of running a non profit and helping people who need help the most. We have gotten to the place where we swore to ourselves that we would never go.

We tried so hard...everyone of our Full Time volunteer staff and our other Part Time volunteers have all put blood, sweat & tears into running @HarvestHillsYYC and helping our fellow #Calgarians.

If there is anyone that could help fill two serious requests. One is for a single father fleeing family domestic violence & the other is for a single senior needing help with medication that she can’t afford.

To fill these two requests and the two from last night we need $980.00 Dm us for more information.

The single father needs $380.00 for rent.

The single senior needs $476.00 for her meds that aren’t covered.

#Alberta #Calgary #Canada #Edmonton #Lethbridge #Abgov #COVID19 #CalgaryStrong #CanadaStrong #AlbertaStrong #PleaseHelp #Donate #AlbertaCares

We only need $1475 to be able to help everyone on our list up to and including two urgent that came in about twenty three minutes ago.

In the next tweet below is their request and our reply.

#food #foodrelief #foodsecurity #AcademicChatter #AcademicTwitter #Calgary #HelpUs

https://twitter.com/Hell_Berta/status/1390887825357217796

First Urgent Request

#Lifeline #StartingOver #StartingNew #CovidSOS #AB #Alberta #Calgary #Canada #AbusiveRelationship #DomesticViolence #DomesticAbuse #Survivor #AbuseHasNoGender #Abuse #CalgaryStrong @Crackmacs @CraigCoolahan #Please #Help #Family #Children #YYC #MentalHealth

Today I was driving in the NE & I saw someone going through a garbage/recycling bin looking for something to eat

I immediately pulled over and asked them if we could help

The gentleman broke down crying and said he didn’t know what else to do. He’s never been homeless before. He went on to say that he was new to being homeless and didn’t know anything. He used the last of his money to rent a room for a week in a motel where...well let’s just say it wasn’t the best place.

This evening at 4:45pm we got a call from a social worker that works with seniors. She called us in a frenzy asking us for immediate help.

She told us of an emergency so extreme that her voice shook with concern over one of her clients.

#YYC #Calgary #CalgarySeniors #hope This is what she said:

"Hello Jen, I was hoping I would be able to contact you before I left my work for the day in regards to a rather important situation that came across my desk this afternoon. I hope you have the time to chat?"

I said "Yes of course, how can we help?" #care

Yesterday, we had a call. A call that made 3 of my volunteers cry.

You see, an individual in need contacted @HarvestHillsYYC and asked for help with food. We have permission to tell his story and share his request with everyone. It started off with a phone call to a new volunteer that was on her first on call shift over the Christmas Break. "N" called and left a message in which he asked to be called back as soon as possible.

So our volunteer Melanie returned his call.

After a day of delivering shopping for and hampers with @merylyyc, I was dropping my daughter off at her dads for the week when I first got a call from a single mom that needed help.

Picture below is a truck full of hampers! I answered the phone and explained the steps this person on the phone needed to do to apply for assistance. She told me she would head to the site right away.....and she did.

So this 🚨Emergency🚨 came in tonight. (See photo of email).

🚨🎄#Christmas #Help🎄🚨

We only have 2 #families left 2 be sponsored for this #HolidaySeason

If you want to help a #family be #sponsored, please call the HHCC team at 403-608-7224 for more info!

Family information for each family is below!

#PleaseDonate #AlbertaCares #YYC Family 1:

#FrontlineWorkers #Mom is on the #Frontline at a local #Hospital.

#Dad is a maintenance worker that worked for #WestJet, he was laid off. (He’s been #LaidOff since May of #2020.

This #Family has 4 #Children & #Pets.

They are looking to be #Sponsored for #Christmas

I am writing this while crying. I was going to read it on a video but I am an ugly crier!

This was emailed to us last night from a 10 year old little girl who does not want presents for Christmas but wants food to feed her family. #Help #RETWEET #Alberta #Calgary #Canada #ChristmasWeLove #Christmas #Compassion #Children #Caring @global_leslie @DeniseMacIntyr9 @Christina_Suz @scotthpayne @yyc @ParachutesP @Crackmacs @TonyJCronin @EveryAlbertan @ReapersPlace @GrannyGTArp #FeedYYC

Jen here, I am currently waiting for my car 2 warm up 2 be able 2 drive 2 a home in #Martindale to pick up & drive a mom & young son to the Children’s Hospital.

She needed a ride & did not have enough money to pay for a cab.

So the #volunteer on call called me for #help. #YYC So soon I will be heading to the Children’s Hospital 🏥 & hoping that this young mans eardrum did not burst, as his mom said that this will be his 4th or 5th ear infection just this year. Mom is alone here in #YYC as she just moved here from #GrandPrairie in January of this year.

The team was out shopping for #FoodHampers today! All of us are super busy!

We delivered sixteen #hampers just today alone with tomorrow being our day off!

We are in #desperate #need of donations whether it be a financial #donation or gift cards.

TY TO ALL OUR VOLUNTEERS!! Tomorrow we will be planning out all our holiday hampers! But we are still in need of donations small or large, as daily we get calls, emails, texts and messages on our social media.

If you can help, please donate via our website at:

HarvestHillsCaresCalgary.Ca