Letter to Editor: How to Help our Vulnerable Community- Seniors and Disabled

South San Francisco, CA   March 18, 2020 by Daniela Jonguitud

{Note: We have a great many homebound seniors and disabled that live independently and are our neighbors here in South City. Because they are not attached to a ‘senior facility’,they too often do not receive the community benefits given to others, that have more support via Senior Centers, etc. To contact Daniela directly CLICK HERE}

Good evening everyone.

A very worried citizen of SSF, who happens to serve the senior community and have a good amount of business owners as friends, has been worried about the economy of our city as I am sure most of you  are.

Earlier today I read a msg from our Mayor, asking if we had any Ideas to help, and I wanted to share one that hopefully can keep our businesses a little more occupied, and therefore, our economy and working force generating income.

“ A MEAL ON HOLD” Could be a good name for it?

It consist in having people call and buy a “meal on hold”  to the restaurant they want to support. That meal on hold then can be delivered to our senior community who can’t leave their house, and also our disable community as well. It can also be provided to our working force who are facing the dangers of provide care for us during these times, such as our firefighters, our clinics staff, and our homeless population in town.

Creating flyers to send to the houses with a number to call can be also a source of income for business such as printing, if this is possible with our lockdown.

I truly believe there is endless possibilities for this, in how people can volunteer to help, (starting by us) to deliver meals to the huge amount of seniors and disables, who do not qualify for meals on wheels or services like that. Who are Isolated or having a hard time to find food in the supermarkets.

I personally could be one of them who would pay to support a person in need and hurt for the economy.

We also have small bags for basic stuff for seniors, such as tp, wipes, soap, dish soap, and toothpaste, in case those ones want to be created a larger scale, we can have people drop it and we can create this bags for our community as well. We use them because we proudly serve our veterans and a lot of them can not leave their homes or have family members close by.

I really hope this idea can help, not only restaurants, but employees of the restaurants to be needed, and not lose their jobs. We could also do this with our produce business and more.

This said, I hope I did not wasted your valuable time trying to keep a healthy environment in our city at the same time we are being cautious not to spread this new member of the living chain.

I thank you for your time  and I am thankful for the opportunity to serve our more hurt population.

Always grateful to be of service.

Daniela Jonguitud