With many San Franciscans newly unemployed and facing a wide range of hardships, the need for volunteers and donations to community-based organizations is higher than ever. As a neighborhood center, we have always been committed to supporting local nonprofits and businesses, many of which are currently facing unprecedented challenges. Since the Bay Area shelter-in-place order was issued, our One Richmond team has been working hard to do just that.
Partnering with the Community
To start, our One Richmond website is aggregating up-to-date information and rallying public support to meet community needs. From PPE donations for front-line healthcare workers to grocery deliveries for seniors, our team has helped to promote and coordinate a wide range of ways for people to get involved and help their neighbors.
The Richmond Senior Center, our longtime partner in the home-delivered grocery program, is one of a number of organizations that have had to adjust their services in recent months. Since in-person programming is not currently feasible, they launched a phone-banking initiative to check in on seniors in the neighborhood and see what sort of assistance they need. Our team helped recruit several English- and Cantonese-speaking volunteers to make these wellness calls, ensuring that nearly 900 of our older adult neighbors can stay connected to their support networks.
We’re also excited to begin a partnership with SF New Deal, an organization that has been working with local restaurants to deliver over 130,000 hot meals to San Franciscans in need. We’ve been helping them expand this program to the Richmond District, utilizing our community connections and food security expertise to meet even more of our neighbors’ needs.
Supporting Local Merchants
Local businesses have also suffered due to COVID-19, and many have been forced to drastically change their business models to accommodate social distancing. One of the biggest challenges for merchants, however, is getting information about their new hours and arrangements in front of customers. Lots of new businesses have signed up for One Richmond in the past two months, and our Shop Local page has become the one-stop location for those updates, including a full listing of local restaurants that offer food for pickup and delivery.
Since its launch in 2017, One Richmond has grown into an essential hub for this kind of information, and just last year opened a storefront on Clement Street where people can drop in and learn about what’s new in the neighborhood. Now, when the best thing we can do for our community is stay home, our One Richmond team has had to adapt to the new normal.
As restrictions gradually ease in the coming months, our team is committed to maintaining One Richmond as an essential source of information about the Richmond District. We look forward to being able to see our neighbors in person again, but in the meantime, we hope that you will all join us in our commitment to One Richmond’s values: we’re inclusive, we take care of each other, we take care of the Richmond, and we shop and eat local.
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