Optician, retired ophthalmologist in Moncton provide free eye care to food bank clients

A no-charge eye clinic is running at the Peter McKee Community Food Centre in Moncton.

Optician, retired ophthalmologist in Moncton provide free eye care to food bank clients.

It’s the most grateful and appreciative clientele optician Pierre Landry has ever worked with.

“They’re so nice. They come from all walks of life. We had somebody who hadn’t had an eye exam since the Vietnam War,” said Landry.

Landry and retired ophthalmologist Ed Doherty have been running an eye clinic inside the Peter McKee Community Food Centre in Moncton, N.B., since November 2023.

They’ve seen around 125 patients since then, all food bank clients.

Peter McKee staff do the vetting process and determine who has the greatest need and then book the appointments.

“Basically, we’re a team. If one of us isn’t here, it doesn’t work,” said Landry.

Landry creates the patient files and asks a few questions, does the pre-testing and then Doherty does a complete eye examination.

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“Including a refraction, which is a test for vision,” said Doherty. “We look for medical conditions that present themselves such as cataracts, glaucoma, strokes in the eye, diabetes and following that if the patient needs glasses, I will write a prescription.”

Landry will then fill the prescription with glasses that are the choice of the patient.

If it’s a serious medical condition, Doherty will either start treatment himself or refer them to a colleague in the city.

The program serves clients who can’t afford regular eye care.

There’s no charge for exams, new frames or lenses.

Landry said the total cost for new glasses is usually more than $600.

An optician since 1990, Landry volunteers his time at the clinic because he wants to help people maintain their vision and quality of life.

“There’s so many people who are the working poor. They cannot afford the cost of eye exams let alone glasses and I thought why not see if we can help more people get the vision care they need,” said Landry. “It’s such a huge cost to society if somebody loses their eyesight.”

Doherty said there’s been a few instances of people who had undiagnosed glaucoma, which can eventually lead to blindness, and cataracts are fairly common.

“We’ve seen a taxi driver who certainly didn’t have the vision to drive a cab, and he had no other source of income, so we didn’t sleep well until we were able to get him straightened out and with a pair of glasses that gave him the required vision to drive,” said Doherty.

Doherty, a former MLA, said he gets a great deal of enjoyment helping people in need.

“I’ve always been an advocate for people who haven’t had the chances in life that I’ve had and it’s my way of contributing back,” said Doherty. “When I was in government, I was a huge advocate for people living in poverty, so this is kind of a continuation of that.”

Christine Taylor, executive director of Peter McKee Community Food Centre, said she’s received incredible feedback from her clients.

“Some of them have never seen an eye doctor because they couldn’t afford it,” said Taylor. “Now they’re getting eyewear.”

When people come to the downtown food bank for a sit-down intake meeting, staff will ask them when the last time was that they had an eye exam.

Taylor then books the appointments with Landry.

“There’s no waiting period. They don’t have to fill out the long forms or anything like that,” she said.

The service is also offered to food bank clients in Dieppe, N.B., and Riverview, N.B.

“We’re doing our part to help the Greater Moncton area be a healthier community by offering that to them,” said Taylor.

Doherty and Landry get their glasses from the OneSight – a multi-national charitable organization that provides glasses to people in developing countries.

Landry approached them thinking maybe they can help local people.

They were given an account at Eastern Optical in Dartmouth, N.S., and lenses are made in the lab there and provided to them for free.

“If it wasn’t for OneSight, we couldn’t be offering this service,” said Landry.

The 75-year-old Doherty had to pause for a second when asked how much longer he plans to keep working at the food bank clinic.

“As long as I have my health and my energy, I’m going to continue,” he said.

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