Over the past month, the spread of COVID-19 has changed life as we knew it across our communities. Last week, Stupski made initial investments of $1.5 million in local response funds across the Bay Area and Hawaiʻi to help deliver immediate services. As individuals, our team is also looking for ways to connect with our communities and support our small businesses, nonprofits, and health care systems.
We’re sharing a list of ways to support our communities. From small acts of kindness to donations of any amount, we can show our communities that we care and we stand with them. Have more to add? Please share them with us on Twitter by tagging @StupskiFDN.
Last updated on April 7, 2020.
San Francisco Bay Area
Eat!
- Support local restaurants by ordering takeout from those that are still operating in the Bay Area.
- Order takeout and purchase gift cards from restaurants born at La Cocina, a nonprofit working to solve problems of equity in business ownership for women, immigrants and people of color.
- Avoid the grocery store by purchasing a meal box with frozen meals from La Cocina chefs. One hundred percent of proceeds will go directly to La Cocina graduate chefs.
- Save Our Faves created a platform where you can purchase gift cards from your favorite local business sorted neighborhood across the Bay Area. Some businesses are also taking donations for staff.
- Take a friend or family member to lunch virtually. Order from a local restaurant and have it delivered via a meal delivery app like Caviar, GrubHub, Postmates or Uber Eats.
- And while you are ordering, donate a meal to someone who cannot afford to eat right now.
- MIXT – Click HERE and add “Help Feed Someone a Healthy Meal” to your order, then proceed to checkout.
- REEMS SF – You can do the same with Reem’s SF, a La Cocina graduate business serving delicious Lebanese food.
Shop!
- Purchase gift cards to restaurants so they can stay in business, and you can enjoy a meal when it is safe to do so.
- Likewise, purchase gift cards for local businesses like fitness studios, book stores, and bars.
- Buy plants from local nurseries. Cactus Jungle in the Bay Area delivers.
- Support local artists through Creative Growth’s Stuck at Home series.
Donate!
- Donate to your favorite nonprofits because they may be facing an especially hard time securing donations this year.
- Donate blood to your local blood bank.
- Donate to San Francisco’s Give2SF COVID-19 Response Fund and the Oakland COVID-19 Response Fund to fund each community’s needs as they arise.
- Donate to the COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund for Oakland Students and Families and the San Francisco Unified School District Food Services School Meals Fund.
- Donate a meal from a local restaurant to feed health care workers and others on the frontlines.
- To donate a meal to first responders in the East Bay specifically, donate to East Bay Feed ER to support local restaurants and feed health care workers in the ER.
- Donate to the Community Kitchens Oakland fundraiser. Funds raised will purchase hot meals from local restaurants and feed communities facing the greatest hardships due to COVID-19.
- Donate to the La Cocina Emergency Relief Fund to support La Cocina graduate chefs so chefs can meet a variety of needs, including basic necessities for personal, family or living expenses.
- Support unhoused and other vulnerable community members in Oakland through the East Oakland Collective.
- Contribute to Community Food’s GoFundMe to support EBT/CalFresh discounts and West Oakland Senior Delivery.
- Consult this list of ideas from the SF Chronicle for more ways to support our Bay Area community.
Connect!
- Leave a care package or note for your postal worker outside of your door to thank them for their continued service.
Volunteer!
- Volunteer with Meals on Wheels to deliver meals to homebound seniors.
- Volunteer with the Alameda County Community Food Bank to prepare fresh produce and build emergency food bags.
- Volunteer with the San Francisco Marin Food Bank to prepare emergency food bags.
- Volunteer with Food Runners to drop off perishable food to meal programs around San Francisco.
- Volunteer with Project Open Hand to prepare and deliver medically tailored meals to homebound seniors and people with chronic illnesses.
- Volunteer with the Institute on Aging to call seniors and people with disabilities who are feeling isolated via their Friendship Line.
- Volunteer with Little Brothers to call elderly adults who are isolated in the Bay Area. You can also donate sanitary kits of Clorox wipes and toiletries for $25.
- Volunteer with Oakland At-Risk Match, an organization that matches adults with low-risk factors for COVID-19 with an elder or immunocompromised member of the community who might need help over the next few weeks.
Hawaiʻi
Eat!
- Order takeout from this list of restaurants that are still operating across the islands.
- Order takeout from restaurants on the Big Island.
Donate!
- Donate to the Hawaiʻi Resilience Fund to support Hawaiʻi’s public health sector and community-based nonprofits.
- Donate personal protective health equipment to provide health care professionals at Queen’s Health System with the protective equipment they need to meet the rising demand for their care.
Connect!
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Tune into the Star-Advertiser coronavirus Facebook Live program daily from 10-10:20 AM HST. Reporters will share information with a local focus and ways to help the community.
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Visit CoronavirusHawaiʻi.com for information, ways to volunteer, how you can support local businesses, and more.
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Mail thank you letters and care packages to health care workers at your local hospital.
Volunteer!
- Volunteer with the Hawaiʻi Food Bank to sort and pack food.
- Volunteer with Lanakila Pacific to deliver prepared meals to homebound seniors and people with chronic illnesses on Oahu.