Dev Aggarwal (left) and Francis Miguel (right) are co-owners of Westpark I.D.A. Drugs in Red Deer. They have started a GoFundMe campaign in support of the Red Deer Food Bank to help those going hungry in our community during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Supplied)

By Sheldon Spackman

Stepping Up To Help

Pharmacist launches campaign to support Red Deer Food Bank

Apr 14, 2020 | 4:44 PM

A Red Deer pharmacist is calling on central Albertans and other local pharmacists to join him in supporting the Red Deer Food Bank during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dev Aggarwal, co-owner of Westpark I.D.A. Drugs, created a GoFundMe campaign on April 3, with the hopes of raising $100,000 for the Red Deer Food Bank Society. As of Tuesday, nearly $4,000 has been raised.

Aggarwal acknowledges that after 40 years as a pharmacist in Red Deer, and with thousands of people now out of work, he feels the campaign is a great way to give back to the community.

“We have so many pharmacies that are fortunate enough to keep their doors open and no layoffs,” he explains. “The first thing that came to my mind was the Red Deer Food Bank. It’s pretty dear to my heart as I’ve donated to them before.”

Aggarwal notes that food bank officials have told him every dollar raised, buys them three dollars’ worth of groceries.

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“My initial goal was to aim high, so $100,000,” says Aggarwal. “The reason behind that was we have roughly 1,400 pharmacies in Alberta and about 4,000 pharmacists. So if pharmacists donated even $25-$50 each, we’d be able to attain that goal.”

On Tuesday, the Alberta government announced plans to distribute Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to non-AHS facilities, including a large order of PPE to the Alberta Pharmacists’ Association for distribution to 1,400 pharmacies.

Aggarwal, who also owns Sylvan Lake Pharmacy, says this is very welcome news.

“I was actually inquiring about that, you know, why we haven’t got any PPE here to protect ourselves,” he explains. “But I can understand the province’s situation – they only have so much to go around. Before this, we were kind of buying ourselves at our own expense, buying masks, sanitization and sanitizers from anywhere that we could get ahold of.”

Aggarwal reminds Red Deerians that Westpark I.D.A. has a free delivery system, which has now seen a large increase in calls since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

“We’re encouraging people to call us rather than coming into the pharmacy,” says Aggarwal. “We will deliver their medications at no charge, and leave it at their door step. We are taking every precaution we can like wiping down the counters every hour or every 10 patients and just being on the safe side.

“Let’s all roll up our sleeves and achieve this goal for the food bank that’s in crisis,” he concludes.

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