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How San Diegans Can Help Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

 April 2, 2020 at 11:14 AM PDT

Speaker 1: 00:00 There is no doubt that the last weeks have been filled with anxiety and upheaval, but one way some people have found to cope is by helping out, whether that's writing a note to people socially isolated in a nursing home as we heard in our report from st Paul, senior services or checking on a neighbor and there are other opportunities to give back to the community even during this time of social distance and stay at home orders. For instance, at yesterday's County news conference, Rady and the rock church announced a partnership to collect personal protective equipment. Here's pastor miles McPherson from the rock church. Speaker 2: 00:38 We've never been here before and the only way we're going to get through is if we stick together Speaker 1: 00:44 and joining me now with more on community giving are Mark steward, CEO of San Diego foundation. Mark, welcome to the program. Speaker 2: 00:54 Thank you Marine. Pleasure to be with you. Speaker 1: 00:57 James fluorosis here, he CEO of the San Diego food bank. James, welcome. Good afternoon and we're also joined by Claudine van Goenka. She's public relations manager with the San Diego blood bank. Claudine, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. And we're asking our listeners, how have you been helping out during this crisis or what do you think we should be doing to help each other? Give us a call. The number is one eight, eight, eight, eight, nine five five seven two seven. Mark, let me start with you. The San Diego foundation has put together the coven 19 community response fund. Once people donate, where's that money going? Speaker 2: 01:40 Sure. Well, Maureen, we have already allocated and distributed 1.1 $5 million in the community and another million dollars will be out, uh, very, very soon and a third, a traunch of $1 million will be out next week. We recognize that, uh, we've raised a great sum of money, but that, uh, this crisis is not going to be over next week or next month. And so we're trying to do as much good as quickly as we can, but knowing that people are going to be hurting for months on it. Speaker 1: 02:15 And as I say, what, when people donate to this, what is becoming a very large of fund, how do you distribute that money? Where is it going? Speaker 2: 02:25 Sure. So we have five priorities. The first is food security, making sure that people are fed and uh, that, that their health needs are met. So that's our top priority. We also have other emerging needs such as transportation and mobile phone bills. Uh, we are also seeing emergent new needs that include Scholastic materials for students. Uh, we're hearing, uh, incredible stories of the digital divide, uh, where uh, students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds really have no capacity to be able to participate in their classes, which will be all going online very soon. And that's from a K up through a 16, 16th grade. So the need is great, but these are the areas on which we're going to be focusing our time and attention. Speaker 1: 03:17 And Mark, how have people responded to the call for donations? Speaker 2: 03:21 It, you know, it's been remarkable. Moraine, the first people that we turn to of course were fund holders at the San Diego foundation. And of the six point $8 million we've received to date, probably 60 to 65% have come from our fund holders who said this is the time for which they needed to act and to give now. So we've secured gifts from about 1600 corporations, foundations and individuals, and that number continues to grow every day. Speaker 1: 03:51 Now, many people find themselves out of work because of this outbreak and money is tight, but there are other ways people can help like volunteering. And this is to our listeners, if you've found a way to help give us a call, the number is 1888955727. That's 1-888-895-KPBS let me turn to James. The San Diego food bank is one of the organizations in need of volunteers right now. Isn't that right? Speaker 3: 04:21 That is correct. That is a always been a major part of our supply chain, our, our workforce. And a typical year, about 29,000 volunteer visits, uh, the value of that volunteerism, about one point $8 million of free labor. So we've had to kind of adjust some things because you know, one of the big groups that provided a lot of that volunteerism where corporations that are doing community outreach, community service projects, while they all canceled within the first week, 50 groups, 1400 volunteers. And so we've been putting out the call for individuals and you know, knock on wood, so far so good. Uh, we've been doing pretty well filling the shifts. Speaker 1: 04:59 What will the volunteers be doing? Speaker 3: 05:02 Well, they, uh, you know, our model is one of the, uh, more cutting edge models. So we sort of pack all the food that goes out for distribution. So rather than bringing out a big, huge VAT of a, of a fruit, we actually bagged that fruit, you know, so maybe eight or 10 apples in a bag or oranges or what have you. So it makes the distributions go a lot quicker. So they sort food, they package the food. We have a senior program. We do 14,000 a week. We serve 14,000 seniors a month. They get a 36 pound box of food. Um, well that food, each one of those boxes have to be a packed. So, you know, my volunteers are making 13,000 boxes a month or 14,000 boxes a month just for that program alone. So it's pretty much everything we uh, distribute. Last year was 32 million pounds of food. A volunteer will generally touch that food before it goes out. Speaker 1: 05:51 How does volunteering conform with the governor's stay at home orders? Speaker 3: 05:56 Well, um, we are exempt Speaker 1: 05:58 from the, uh, executive order. So all food banks, food pantries, our nonprofit partners, uh, with a, um, you know, we're feeding programs and all our volunteers are all essential personnel and they're all exempt from the, uh, from the governor's order. Uh, we are taking care all the precautions. We're doing social spacing, hand washing, station sanitizer, gloves and all that. So we're making sure that our volunteers are protected if they do come in and volunteer. And that's at the San Diego food bank. Let me turn now to Claudine. One of the most well known ways of volunteering of course, is to give blood. And now the San Diego blood bank wants you to know that they are still taking appointments from blood donors. Claudine, how does that work during the Corona virus outbreak? Speaker 4: 06:43 Yes. So I will say, I'll start by saying the community really has come to the table and come out to donate blood. A couple of weeks ago we were definitely in crisis. Um, but the word got out, people have been coming in. So now what we're asking is for folks to make an appointment temporarily, we are on an appointment only basis. We're asking them to make an appointment for the next three to four weeks because while we do have a stable supply right now, we are going to need to continue to keep that supply stable through the pandemic and beyond. And, and much like the food bank, we are considered an essential community service. So we will remain open all of our donors centers and the few mobile drives that there are, uh, will remain open during the stay at home order. Speaker 1: 07:26 We do have a caller on the line. Sam is calling us from San Diego. Sam, welcome to the program. Speaker 5: 07:33 Hi. Um, I'm calling from mere Mysa and I want to encourage everyone to, uh, make math and uh, spare your, uh, [inaudible] mass for F, uh, for the, uh, those who actually need them. Speaker 1: 07:48 And are you making masks to them? Speaker 5: 07:51 Yes. Our family has made more than 500 masks and we have been passing out to nurses and elderly. Then we have way more requests than we can do. [inaudible] Speaker 1: 08:02 well thank you so much for the call and our number is one eight, eight, eight, eight, nine, five. KPBS but we're coming close to the top of the hour. Let me continue my conversation with Claudine. And you need volunteers though, not to give blood, but to help at the blood bank. What would they be doing? Speaker 4: 08:20 We do, we need volunteers almost as much as we need blood donors at this point. So volunteers will be doing an array of different things. If they are joining us at our donor centers, which we have six of throughout San Diego County, they potentially could be helping, um, take temperatures at the door because you are currently not allowed in the door without being, uh, having your temperature taken and being asked a few questions and that's if they're comfortable doing that. Otherwise, we have opportunities within the donor center to wipe down the tables where folks get their juices and their snacks after their donation. We're down the pens, we're wiping down the folders, potentially helping to wipe down the donor beds in between and to make sure that folks are social distancing. Speaker 1: 09:04 And remind us why a steady supply of blood is so important for our community. Speaker 4: 09:10 A community blood bank means everything to an area. Not all cities have their own community blood bank. And so it's important that we have enough on our shelves. We supply over 40 hospitals from here to Los Angeles and people don't just need blood when they have an accident or an operation. We have to remember there are people out there that use blood on a regular basis to stay alive. Um, we have a couple of young ladies that we work with on a regular basis that get blood transfusions every three weeks because they have a very rare form of thalassemia. It's of anemia, it's called Fallacemia. And so we have to remember those supplies need to stay steady, not only for those who have one time need, but for those who are in need all the time. Speaker 1: 09:52 James, what are you seeing at the food bank in terms of the number of people who need food? Speaker 3: 09:58 Well, our lines are growing. Uh, you know, we have a nonprofit center. It's where most of our nonprofits come and pick up their food. Uh, we're distributed about a hundred thousand pounds a day just to our nonprofit partners. And so I go down, I talked to the different agencies, I'm hearing the stories. They were between 50% longer lines to double the size. Uh, so we're in a process of just trying to get our arms around how many pounds of food we've distributed and how many more people we've served just since, uh, March 12th. Uh, but we know that the lines are longer. Uh, we're doing a few mass distributions, which is something that we don't normally do. We're trying to shorten those lines so we're adjusting on the fly. But um, you know, we typically, uh, we're feeding about 350,000 people a month. Uh, we think that number could be doubled as of this month. Speaker 1: 10:46 And I would want to thank my guests. I have been speaking with Mark Stewart, he's CEO of San Diego foundation, James fluoros, CEO of the San Diego food bank and Claudine van Gungko. She is public relations manager with the San Diego blood bank. And I know that you all really need donations. You need people to give you a call. Uh, could you just really quickly tell us one by one how they can contact you, Mark. Speaker 2: 11:16 Oh, any person can go onto our website, www S D foundation slash covet 19 and make a contribution by check credit card donor advise fund mutual funds. They can make a gift very easily and we will get those dollars out as quickly as we can. And the San Diego foundation is not taking any fees on any gifts. So 100% of what you give will go to help our community in need. Speaker 1: 11:46 Thank you. James fluoro, CEO of San Diego food bank. How do they contact you? Speaker 3: 11:52 So San Diego bank.org Speaker 4: 11:54 back slash get help. We're updating our website, the weekly, the list of the number of distributions. Uh, we're doing and it's about a hundred a week. So San Diego food bank.org/get help. And if you want to make a financial gift, San Diego food bank.org there's also a virtual food drive where people can actually buy food on our behalf. And quickly. San Diego bloodbank how would, how would they contact you? Also through our website. In order to make an appointment to donate blood, just sign up to volunteer or to make a financial donation. You can go to San Diego blood bank.org and we too have a coven 19 informational button that you can check there that's updated regularly. And you've been listening to KPBS F M San Diego. Thank you for listening. [inaudible].

There are other opportunities to give back to the community, even during this time of social distance and stay at home orders.
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