SUMMARY: Download a template to print and deliver in your community to offer help – from a safe distance – and let neighbours know how to contact you.
These are extraordinary times. Like others, my first response to tragedy is to try and find something I can do about it. Unfortunately I didn’t pursue a degree in epidemiology. But I do have a small suggestion for how we might support each other.
Many folks in our communities are finding it difficult to get the food and supplies they need. Maybe they’re at high risk if they contract the virus. Maybe they are at home with young kids they don’t want to expose to grocery stores. Whatever the reason, this is a time to come together in our communities and help each other out. We need neighbours helping neighbours.
How to help:
- Pick up grocery items for them if you’re already going to the store
- Give them an extra roll of toilet paper if they run low and you have a stash
- Check in now and then, by phone or email
- Pick up prescriptions
- Costco member? A bulk buy could help many
- Amazon Prime member? You can have purchases delivered to their home
If each of us lets a few of our neighbours know that we are offering help, there will be more care and less panic floating around. Let’s distance physically, but not socially.
By dropping items off on front porches or apartment building lobbies instead of in-person, we can abide by physical distancing recommendations.
But… what if we don’t know our neighbours? Or maybe we don’t have contact information for them. We can’t very well go knocking on doors right now. But we can deliver handouts.
To make this convenient, I’ve made a simple PDF file you can print out, fill in, and deliver to your neighbours’ mailboxes. Challenge yourself to deliver at least 5!
Paper delivery might feel very old-school in this age of social media and texting, but if we stick to electronic communications, we’re going to leave out many of our older neighbours.
Help spread the word! Use these hashtags and share freely: #NeighboursHelpingNeighbours #Covid-19
