Ways to Help Your Community During Quarantine
Hey TEDxErs!We hope you’ve had a fun week so far! Maybe you’ve been trying out some of our recommended favorites that we talked about previously, or have been getting back to mindful practices that you read about in our productivity post. Either way, we’re back again to give y’all more content to digest.
This week’s topic: unique ways you can help your community during quarantine times
We know it’s easy to feel frustrated due to the lack of social interaction and circumstances. But it’s important to still try to find ways to fortify our community’s strengths and to support one another throughout these times. So here are just some of the ways you can give back and help others!
1) Letters to family and friends
If you’re feeling distant from your friends or family, feel free to reach out to them in the form of a letter! There’s just something about receiving a letter and seeing the personal handwriting from a loved one that really resonates with people’s hearts. It’s important to always check up on others, and to make them feel like they aren’t forgotten in the midst of all the commotion. However, if you can’t send a physical letter, it’s still just as great to message or call loved ones to check-in.
2) Letters to retirement homes
It can be difficult to visit others, or to receive visitors, especially when practicing social distancing. We all know that loneliness can be a difficult and overwhelming feeling, so writing letters to retirement homes to prevent these feelings of loneliness can help lift spirits. This can help the residents feel loved even when they can’t see their loved ones.
3) Gift delivery food
This started out as a twitter trend and soon after to a challenge where friends would nominate each other to participate on Instagram, and hopefully, it’s here to stay. It plays out like this:
Open up a food or grocery delivery app of your preference such as Instacart, Uber Eats, Postmates, DoorDash or Favor and select something to be delivered to your address. This can be a general set of groceries, some doughnuts to enjoy with family, a meal or whatever else you would like. Then, whenever you are assigned a driver or carrier send them a message or call and tell them to not deliver the order to the address and that it is a gift to them for being on the frontlines. The responses have been gratitude in its purest form.
4) Donations to healthcare workers
Many hospitals have found themselves on a shortage of masks during this pandemic. The remaining masks that can be found online to purchase often become increasingly expensive due to the massive increase in demand. However, healthcare workers still need at least some type of protective equipment to stay healthy and to help others. As a result, there are GoFundMe pages that have been created to raise money to either buy the necessary masks, or to even make a DIY version of the masks to donate to these hospitals. If you live in Austin, you have probably heard of this delicious acai and smoothie bar called “Blenders and Bowls”. They use natural and healthy ingredients that are sure to satisfy anyone! They started their own GoFundMe to provide their smoothies to healthcare workers. $5 equals one smoothie, it is a great way to give back to our local Austin doctors and nurses in a nutritious way!
5) Delivering for elders
We have read far too much about COVID-19 in the news, and something we were able to grasp was how older adults are a vulnerable population to the virus. Therefore, a great way to help them keep safe at home would be to lessen their outside exposure at places such as grocery stores. Check-in with your neighbors and family members that pertain to this group and offer to deliver their groceries to their door. Grocery delivery apps are limited on available slots due to their high demand so this is a great way to help out while doing your own groceries as well.
6) Paying for people behind you at drive-through
As restaurants shift to becoming drive through based or pick-up only, many customers find themselves waiting in line to receive their food. To brighten someone’s day, or help alleviate someone of these expenses, try paying for the order of the person behind you in the drive-through line! While many people go to fast-food restaurants to satisfy a food craving they’ve had, there are also others who may rely on fast-food as a cost-effective way to stay full. With this in mind, it’s important to try to assist others as much as possible, especially during times like these.
We’ve tried some of these out and it has been a very fulfilling and successful experience. Giving back to your community always provides a sense of purpose, but helping out during hard times like these makes it all the better. Simple acts of kindness such as the previously mentioned are a great way to put a smile on someone’s face, so we invite you to try some out and share with others your experience. We are sure only good will come out of it!
Until next time we connect,
-TEDxUTAustin