1) Donate blood at SD Blood Bank (https://www.sandiegobloodbank.org/) - by appointment only. The bank is very low right now and needs your help.
2) For some reason, people are dumping their pets and the animal rescue organizations are overwhelmed. There was some fear that Covid 19 could be transmissible to and from pets, but that has been determined to be highly unlikely. According to one of the experts, Shelley Rankin, a microbiologist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Philadelphia, who spoke to Science, there is no present evidence to suggest that there is a possibility of spread from humans to animals or vice versa.
I have a friend who rescues cats (mostly Maine Coons) and could really use a few foster homes for a couple of weeks. Let me know if interested.
This is also kitten/puppy season and mothers will be delivering soon. If you have ever thought of fostering/ adoption now is the time.
https://www.sdhumane.org/support-us/volunteer/foster/
3) The
food bank needs volunteers. Most volunteers have been older and are now house bound. I have also checked with Feeding San Diego and Meals on Wheels - they need time to screen people and are holding off on volunteers for now. Check out the food bank instead -
https://sandiegofoodbank.org/volunteer/4) Don't forget to
check locally - maybe put up a sign in your neighborhood if you can shop and drop for others. Note the virus does live on cardboard, paper and plastic for a short while, but carefully washing things off before bringing them into the house (then washing your hands well) seems to be very safe.
5) If you are feeling crafty and miss making dog toys, how about
making surgical masks? Yes, we are that low. What we really need are the special N95 masks that seal tightly around the face. This is crucial when caring for someone highly infectious who is coughing, sneezing, vommitting. However, it turns out that we can safely put another regular surgical mask on top of the N95 mask to keep the outside of it clean so we can safely reuse the N95 mask. We will run out of other disposable regular masks as well so many hospitals have asked the community to make cloth masks that can be worn and washed. The details are in this article
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2020/03/20/calling-all-people-who-sew-and-make-you-can-help-solve-2020-n95-type-mask-shortage/#18c23d614e41. You can also find a number of youtube videos on making surgical masks. If you make them, I will get them to the hospital for you.
