High gas prices hitting volunteer drivers hard

Michelle Bell drives into Windsor from Stoney Point, Ont. two to three times a week to volunteer for the Street Angels of Windsor-Essex. She drives around delivering food to people experiencing homelessness.

But it's costing her $50 to $60 extra each week now that gas prices have skyrocketed since the beginning of the year.

"I'm trying to make it work so I can volunteer as much as I have time for," said Bell, who gets a good feeling do the work she does.

The charity only reimburses her for about half her costs, but that is eating into the organization's budget.

Street Angels volunteer co-director Merissa Mills, who gets reimbursed for the gas money she spends extra a week, says reimbursing the volunteers also prevents them from doing as much for the needy as they'd like.

"Anything that's not being donated, we're purchasing it out of pocket so it means we can purchase less of those items," said Mills, adding they haven't been able to provide necessary items like underwear lately.

• Gas prices drop 12 cents to about $1.79 per litre in most Ontario cities

Tina Gatt, the manager of community outreach with the Windsor Essex Children's Aid Society (CAS) who leads up the volunteer services team, says the high gas prices and the COVID-19 restrictions over the past two years have conspired to reduce the number of volunteer drivers they have from 110 to 60.

The drivers are needed to transport children to school, camp and other places.

"Many of our retirees continue to work so we're seeing a decrease in retirees coming on board," said Gatt.

It's led to the CAS having to lean on the remaining volunteers more, and they are only getting reimbursed about $0.55 a kilometre, which isn't enough.

"How far is that 55 cents per kilometre going to go and is it worth for them even to be driving," pondered Gatt.

"So we try to get more creative, offering families gas cards, putting kids in cars with other kids. If a couple of children are going to a camp, one driver can pick up a couple along the way," said Gatt.

Lorraine Goddard, the CEO of United Way of Windsor Essex says some food banks in the area are not opening up when needed because the food bank volunteers are not there.

"Many of those are run with a lot of volunteers, so certainly those have really been impacted by the challenge with volunteers," said Goddard.