Seniors and others vulnerable to severe effects from coronavirus can get help from volunteers who will shop and perform other errands.
The new non-profit Helping Hands matches volunteers with people who are at higher risk of life-threatening COVID-19 infection if they leave their homes, including older people, those with chronic diseases and people with compromised immune systems.
Help can take a variety of forms, from grocery shopping or picking up medications to walking dogs or even just talking by phone or sharing a virtual meal, said the non-profit’s CEO Jeff Miller.
Started by Miller and Pedram Keyani, both former Uber executives, the organization has begun providing services across the U.S., and has enlisted thousands of volunteers across 46 states, including several hundred in the Bay Area, Miller said. “It can work anywhere in the country so long as someone is raising their hand needing help and someone is raising their hand willing to help,” Miller said. “We’re just getting started but it’s been amazing to see how many folks from in and around Silicon Valley and really around the country have reached out and wanted to help.”
By Miller’s calculation, based on age and disease rates in the U.S., “probably one in three Americans should not be leaving home right now.”
“This isn’t a Bay Area problem or a Montana problem or a Wyoming problem — this is an everywhere problem,” Miller said.
People can ask for help on another person’s behalf, Miller said. That was the way two of the people helped so far by volunteer Julia Ryan of Belmont were brought into the project: Someone contacted Helping Hands to ask if a couple they knew could receive shopping assistance. “She’s immunocompromised and he’s bedridden, so it’s super hard for them to get out,” said Ryan, 24, a Stanford University research assistant.
The couple live paycheck to paycheck, so being able to get groceries delivered without paying a fee highlighted another benefit of Helping Hands, Ryan said.
More than 100 people, many of them from prominent Bay Area technology companies including Apple, Google, Salesforce and Facebook, have joined the all-volunteer team that’s built and is operating Helping Hands. Like most tech startups, the non-profit has people working on marketing, business development, “customer success,” design and product engineering, Miller said.
All interaction between volunteers and recipients of help is “no contact” to ensure parties on both sides are safe from coronavirus infection, Miller said. Payments for groceries and other goods is made either electronically or via a check or cash left at people’s doors.
The non-profit provides an opportunity for volunteers to help others in their communities, while keeping safe from the virus, Ryan said. “This is just the perfect way to get involved,” she said.
Volunteers and people in need of assistance can sign up with Helping Hands at the website https://helpinghands.community.
