Sendial was born out of the collaborative vision of Thrifty Foods customer and seniors advocate Prue Cunningham, and Thrifty Foods founder Alex Campbell Senior. The service opened at our Fairfield, Victoria location on January 13, 1987. Within a year, more than 100 customers depended on Sendial for their weekly groceries and fresh foods. Today, that number has grown to over 700 customers served every week!
Sendial is made possible through the generous hearts and hands of more than 375 dedicated volunteers. We are honoured, grateful, and inspired by the commitment of this incredible volunteer team, who work incredibly hard to quietly help our community.
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Meet Yvonne
Yvonne was born in Nanaimo and in her adulthood, lived in the Lower Mainland and Calgary, before returning to Victoria. Yvonne is a widow. She has a son, daughter and grandson. For nearly 40 years, Yvonne taught school, mostly as a kindergarten teacher. Her interests include gardening, belonging to a book club and being a member of Beta Sigma Phi. Yvonne and her late husband enjoyed sailing, hiking, and extensive travelling with friends.
Yvonne started volunteering with Sendial in 1998, wanting to reach out to seniors. She had taken her class to tour the Broadmead store and was very impressed with the caring staff. Yvonne has been a Phoner, Shopper and is now a Captain. Prior to Sendial, Yvonne volunteered at a local nursing home, bringing supplies and serving the residents and their visitors. Yvonne finds volunteering to be rewarding and considers her Sendial team to be excellent and caring, supporting the customers. She feels Sendial is a wonderful service.
Meet Connie
This Prairie Girl earned a Nursing Diploma from the University of Saskatchewan in 1962, and moved to Bella Bella, BC shortly after. Connie worked at Vancouver General Hospital from 1964-85 and then moved to Salt Spring Island with her husband in 1985, where she worked at Lady Minto Hospital until 2000. She has a son, daughter and five grandsons.
Connie enjoys choral singing with the Salt Spring Singers and is a member of a book club and informal walking group. She’s also involved with her residence’s Strata Council and is a member of the Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign. Connie has been to every Canadian province, visited many foreign countries and enjoyed many years sailing with her late husband.
Connie began with Sendial in 2000, first as Phoner and Shopper and then mostly shopping and providing back-up help since COVID. She likes helping to maintain people’s independence and values the connection with friends, staff and shoppers Sendial provides.
Meet Jeanette
Jeanette was born in England and immigrated to Canada with her parents when she was nine months old. She worked in Ontario for 12 years before moving west, where she worked for the BC Government for 23 years. Jeanette retired 13 years ago. She loves to travel, read historical fiction, take daily walks, research family history and knit. She also visits her dad in long term care every day to support his needs.
Jeanette has been a Sendial volunteer for 13 years – mainly as a Phoner, as a Captain at the Victoria Admirals Walk store and now as a Remote Phoner for several locations. She’s motivated by knowing she’s helping customers, many housebound, by providing social contact and assisting them to eat properly. Jeanette finds her interactions with customers both heartwarming and personally meaningful and feels she would truly miss these connections if not for the Program.
Getting Started with Sendial
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Thrifty Foods Sendial volunteers phone each Sendial customer on an assigned morning each week to take their order, and then shop the order, usually the day after the order is placed. After we process the order through our checkout, we send it out for delivery in a refrigerated delivery truck. Delivery times vary from week to week depending on what other orders are on the delivery truck. We do require that someone be available to accept the order in person when we deliver. Sendial is available on a temporary or permanent basis for $5 per delivery. For more information, visit our Sendial FAQs or contact our Customer Care team.