With donation bins overflowing and in some cases surrounded by illegally dumped garbage, Diabetes Canada has issued an open letter to community leaders and elected officials to help raise awareness about the issue.

The association, which stopped donation pickups on March 23 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said the bin situation is “posing a serious health and safety issue.”

Sean Shannon with Diabetes Canada says they have reached out to municipalities asking them to assist since they no longer have anyone to collect since workers have been laid off.

“Because we are shut down, we have reached out to all municipalities across Canada to recognize the problem and that it is a COVID-19 problem and to assist in the cleaning of the area since some have treated it like a garbage disposal.” Shannon said. “The sad thing is a lot of people probably think by leaving the donations outside the bin it will still get to someone in need and that they have done a good thing. Actually, leaving it outside means a lot of the goods get soiled and mouldy and have to be destroyed so if you can wait until a sense of normalcy returns it would be great.”

He adds that because of this extended stoppage of service, Diabetes Canada has lost one of its major sources of revenue which impacts millions of Canadians with diabetes and prediabetes.