Coronavirus (COVID-19) volunteering If you want to volunteer during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, you can do this: outside your home, for example by delivering food and medicine — Tony Morain, spokesman for humanitarian aid group Direct Relief. Call up your local police department and ask if they'd be willing to accept a delivery of a few pizzas as a small token of your appreciation (this helps out your local pizzeria, too! Meals on Wheels, which delivers meals to older people who can’t leave their homes, says it’s anticipating increased demand during the outbreak. Whether they’re on the front lines of the fight to quell the coronavirus, or their mission is entirely unrelated to the current crisis, your dollars will make a big difference. She got the idea to organize a few volunteers to help out during the pandemic when her mother mentioned calling elderly neighbors to see whether they needed anything. Jayde Powell is a "shopping angel," and she and her growing army of volunteers are providing free grocery delivery to the sick and elderly. Additional online volunteer centers may have more opportunities. The novel coronavirus is an unfamiliar foe that’s fast reshaping daily routines as schools close, employees work from home (if they have that luxury), and shared pleasures such as sports games and movie theaters go dark. "If you cannot afford toilet paper or something like that, you're still to reach out to us.". And that’s okay! Even if you don’t consider your employees to be particularly high risk, making the call to work from home sends an important message to your team and to the sector by letting others know that you and your team are ready to do your civic duty by staying off of public transportation, out of hospitals, and just generally out of the way. “Everyone is a responder in this crisis, in one way or another, whether it’s protecting their family or themselves,” Morain said. If you feel comfortable going out, consider knocking on the door of any elderly neighbors and chatting through the screen or storm door just to offer a bit of comfort and reassurance. ", Since March 13, the 20-year-old has been diligently connecting volunteers across the country with people in need through email, phone and. has called for cities to provide hand-washing stations, Walmart is hiring 20,000 seasonal workers — here’s how a seasonal job could affect your unemployment benefits. Welcome to the San Diego COVID-19 Volunteer Hub, a partnership of HandsOn San Diego and United Way of San Diego County! You can donate to Direct Relief’s coronavirus response here. You can also expect to see a lot of new platforms, tools, and apps for connecting with people and getting the job done virtually. Our need for volunteers is constant and continues to evolve as we navigate this Coronavirus health crisis. The stockpiling has been so intense that some food banks have seen significant decreases in donations from retail grocery stores, said Kathryn Strickland, chief network officer at Feeding America, a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs nationwide. Powell requires her shopping angels to wear masks and gloves during transportation, pickup and delivery. By using this site you agree to the Privacy Notice and There’s no evidence that this novel coronavirus can be transmitted through blood transfusions, according to the Red Cross. Now more than ever, there is a need to maintain person-to-person connection in any (safe) way that we can. As the world leader in volunteerism we feel a responsibility to unite our broader community, and to use this moment to become stronger. They’re needed because hospital beds are in short supply in China, Morain said. According to a recent press release from the American Red Cross, as the novel coronavirus continues to spread, we can expect to see a decrease in those eligible (and willing) to donate blood.