Seniors are one of the most vulnerable populations in San Francisco during this time. Many are experiencing food insecurity and fear risking their health to go outside to grocery stores to get things that they may need. Our Senior Program, in collaboration with staff from other departments, have stepped up to help meet the demand of the seniors in the neighborhood. As the lines for food continue to grow, the senior program is doing their best to meet the demand or refer them to other institutions that would be able to help them.
One of the issues that seniors face is isolation. They are no longer able to visit our Center to engage in fun social activities with their friends and neighbors or take in-person classes that help them learn how to take better care of their health. Everything has to be online now and it has been a challenge as the seniors really miss being at BHNC. That is why the senior department has stepped up to do wellness calls every single week. They are currently reaching 45-55 seniors everyday. Every senior gets a phone call at least once a week. The seniors told the team that they enjoy getting phone calls and were very happy that BHNC had not forgotten about them.
Yajaira Vasquez, Senior Services Program Supervisor, said that it’s important to her to do these phone calls because each senior has a different need that needs to be addressed and calling them would help them to feel less isolated. The wellness calls are important in ensuring that the seniors are fine and Yajaira wants to make sure that the seniors know that we are here to help support them.
“The seniors love these phone calls. They’re all super happy that we’re calling,” Yajaira said. “We’ve gotten a lot of positive responses. They were like ‘we really like that you guys are keeping us in mind’. Some even started crying.”
The amount of people that the team is helping is increasing. We now average 125 clients that are coming to our Center to pick up meals. For meal pick-up, we serve 22 – 24 seniors on a daily basis.
The senior department has been working on transitioning all of the in-person classes for seniors to online. Yajaira said the instructors have been giving positive feedback on BHNC’s work. One of them told her that out of all the 10 organizations he worked for, BHNC is the only one that is organized and doing things in a timely manner. It has helped him have smoother classes with no issues.
If you are facing food insecurity and are interested in signing up for the food pantry, for English speaking clients please contact Chelsea Liu at 415.206.2140 x 170. For Spanish speaking clients, contact Yajaira Vasquez at 415-289-9346 and for Chinese/ Mandarin Clients, Mary Peng at 415-206.2140 x172. Thank you!
