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How to help
By adamg on Fri, 03/13/2020 - 9:36pm
As the state shuts down, people have begun trying to organize small groups to help out their neighbors. Here are some of them:
Arlington, Brookline, Dorchester, East Boston, Jamaica Plain, Malden, Medford and Somerville, South Boston, Grew School (Hyde Park), North Shore.
But beyond neighborhood lines, are there people with particular skills who can help other folks in the area?
Add a comment below if you know about other neighborhood groups or if you'd like to help out regardless of neighborhood (or drop us a line if you don't want your name in a public comment.
What Boston-area hospitals need and where to drop it off (scroll down, click on MA, scroll down some more).
Boston Cares - Matching groups that need help with volunteers with time.
Sites distributing meals to Boston school students.
Boston restaurants open for takeout and delivery.
Status of Cambridge restaurants and businesses. Malden restaurants and other businesses.
How to get free Comcast Internet service if money is an issue.
The Restaurant Strong Fund aims to help laid-off restaurant workers.
The importance of social distancing - a guide by Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard T.F. Chan School of Public Health.
The United Way has set up a fund to help hourly workers and other people economically hurt by Covid-19. The Greater Boston Food Bank is also seeking donations.
State loan fund for small businesses affected by Covid-19.
If you have coronavirus questions, the state has set up 211 to call for possible answers.
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Comments
Want to help
Looking to help local seniors especially in Cambridge.
Have donated to "empty your venmo" campaigns, but looking for local engagement
What I can do
Tech skills in Linux, TCP/IP, Storage, SQL, web/desktop connectivity.
Ride or pharmacy run in 617.
Drop a note to [email protected]
Don't buy the last of everything
If you're in the store panic buying, consider not buying the last of every item there so other people can get toilet paper, eggs or milk or bread.
food for students
These are places that will serve meals to students who usually rely on school meal programs
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gcj-hEqLnqdpn1M6j74fKpgjdQ1F2O6X...
This is not limited to Boston. Please pass it along.
Charity Work
While my kids are home from school, I’m having them make craft projects for donations to charity. Gives them something to do and reminds them to help others during this time. I ordered supplies online - if you can get them from a small business, it’s a win-win-win!
Great idea!
Great idea!
Seeing some suggestions that
Seeing some suggestions that people check on their elderly neighbors. Do their family and them a favor and do so over the phone. Do NOT knock on their doors. My 97 year old grandmother does not need your germs. Or mine for that matter, the only people visiting her are retired so less likely to catch it.
And if you don't know their phone number?
People often aren't connected to their neighbors well enough to know their email address or phone number.
Knocking, and then staying well back from the door, is still a good idea. For extra caution, stand sidewind of the other person (not upwind or downwind) and wear a droplet barrier mask.
(Obviously, if you *do* have their phone or email, rock on.)
How about ...
Not arguing - but you got me thinking. Maybe we could slip a friendly note with our phone numbers in the mailbox or under the doors of our elderly/at risk neighbors.
Revere
City of Revere Coronavirus Volunteer Signup
Send bananas to Thailand
https://nypost.com/2020/03/12/monkeys-fight-for-food-in-thailand-after-c...
Mutual Aid Brookline
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18wyL-f2x2j-tFMCsbaxWW98PjY5bVUKfPluF...
Social Distancing
http://www.ariadnelabs.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/03/Social-Dis...
Might you please post this article that you included the link to - the mutual aid efforts are needed. It is easy to slip into the mindset that it IS a snow day.
“2. No kid playdates, parties, sleepovers, or families/friends visiting each other's
houses and apartments.
This sounds extreme because it is. We are trying to create distance between family units and between individuals. It may be
particularly uncomfortable for families with small children, kids with differential abilities or challenges, and for kids who
simply love to play with their friends. But even if you choose only one friend to have over, you are creating new links and
possibilities for the type of transmission that all of our school/work/public event closures are trying to prevent. The
symptoms of coronavirus take four to five days to manifest themselves. Someone who comes over looking well can transmit the virus. Sharing food is particularly risky—I definitely do not recommend that people do so outside of their family. We have already taken extreme social measures to address this serious disease—let's not actively co-opt our efforts by having high levels of social interaction at people's houses instead of at schools or workplaces. Again—the wisdom of early and aggressive social distancing is that it can flatten the curve above, give our health system a chance to not be overwhelmed, and eventually may reduce the length and need for longer periods of extreme social distancing later (see what has transpired in Italy and Wuhan). We need to all do our part during these times, even if it means some discomfort for a while.”