When the COVID-19 pandemic forced Americans into stay-at-home orders this spring, the lack of face-to-face interaction sent the world economy into a tailspin.
Among the Americans hardest hit by the contraction have been the nation’s retirees, whose Social Security benefits are often not enough to live comfortably without other income. The Crawford Senior Center is using all its resources to combat this.
In July, the Crawford Center provided nearly 4,000 boxed meals to local seniors at a makeshift drive-through in its parking lot. Combined with the more than 2,100 meals delivered to residents’ homes, in total the center provided more than 6,000 meals in July alone to roughly 200 local seniors.
That translates to a more than 300 percent increase, according to numbers reported to the Macon County Board of Commissioners at its Sept. 8 meeting.
“These hot meals are what the seniors are used to receiving at the center on any given day, and we wanted to continue with as much normalcy as we safely could during COVID-19,” said Jennifer Hollifield, administrative officer at the senior center. “Many of them pick up their meal and go have a picnic or meet with friends and eat lunch together (with social distancing in mind). It also allows staff to have a daily face-to-face interaction with the participants.”
“Once we went into the pandemic, the decision was made to switch from a congregate meal setting to a drive-through delivery,” said county social services director Patrick Betancourt. “Jennifer and her crew at the Crawford Senior Center didn’t miss a beat.”
Through the center’s partnership with the Angel Medical Center kitchen, the Crawford Center provides its seniors with a hot meal every weekday (many senior centers in Western North Carolina distribute only packaged meals).
Social contact
Hollifield said the drive-through meals are doubly important because they give seniors a chance to have some person-to-person contact while in lockdown, as prolonged periods of isolation can be damaging to customers’ mental health. To that end the CSC has also focused on keeping seniors engaged during lockdown.
“With [the Southwestern Commission Area Agency on Aging], we have started some Zoom classes. We now have 15 Zoom classes that are going,” said Hollifield. “They consist of yoga, tai chi, there’s a writing group, and then there’s just a chat group. As these seniors are dealing with the issues of isolation and loneliness, they can join in this chat group and be able to talk to some of their folks that they used to visit with.”
In addition to the Zoom classes, as well as classes to teach seniors how to use Zoom in the first place, the CSC offers a variety of activities to allow seniors social contact. In the past few months the center staff have made more than 2,000 phone calls checking in with seniors, and recently the center has hosted a weekly drive-through where seniors can pick up books, movies, puzzles and masks.
One big hit with customers has been drive-through bingo, in which staff members write numbers on a whiteboard during meal pickups and players cross off their cards one day at a time as they drive past. In addition to events at the senior center, staff members have also been checking in on seniors in their homes, and although the interactions only last a few minutes, they can make a huge difference to CSC participants.
“We have done some drop-by visits to some of our participants, and there’s one little fellow, bless his heart. Four or five of us got out of our vehicles to visit with him. He come running outside, tears just pouring down his face and commenting how much he loved us and missed being able to see us. So those moments make that worth it,” Hollifield said.