Supporting seniors

Local volunteers shop and bag, then police departments in Bristol and Plymouth deliver groceries and non-perishables from Hannaford supermarkets to homebound seniors in the Newfound Lake area.  The service was started after Hannaford Supermarkets suspended Hannaford-to-Go, its online-order and curbside-pickup service, until April 4.

In Meredith, Center Harbor, Moultonborough and Sandwich, close to 300 seniors signed up for rides to medical appointments from volunteers through Lakes Region Community Caregivers can also get help with food shopping and pharmacy pick-up, a service that began as a local church outreach roughly 20 years ago.

As taking precautions against coronavirus become the new norm for New Hampshire's residents age 60 and up, who have been advised to stay at home, volunteers and community service workers are providing home delivery services that enable this vulnerable population to stay safe.

"In times like this, it's hard for them to get out," said Laconia Fire Chief Kirk Beattie. "The more we can allow them to stay at home, and get all the services and supplies they need, the better." Beattie is enthusiastic about a new food delivery service for Lakes Region seniors - Helping Hands Senior Support for the Lakes Region, which has a presence on Facebook and is building clients online and through referrals from houses of worship, service providers and word of mouth.

Cathy Redmond of Bristol, who retired last year after working 37 years as a disability underwriter for an insurance company, approached town leaders to see what she could do to help the elderly.  She started a volunteer grocery shopping and bagging service at Hannaford in Bristol in conjunction with local police chief Jim McIntire. Volunteers shop and bag orders for seniors Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 to 1, then local police deliver the groceries and collect payment. "We are tweaking it as it goes, and as the situation with coronavirus changes," she said. The service includes seniors in Bristol, Bridgewater, Alexandria, Hebron, Hill, Danbury and New Hampton, and has made 15 deliveries in the last 10 days.

Meredith-based Lakes Region Community Caregivers currently has six carefully-vetted and trained volunteers who give seniors and people with disabilities rides to medical appointments - but that service has shrunk by about 60 percent, reduced to essential medical visits only, said executive director Ann Sprague. Because of the coronavirus, volunteers are spending more of their time grocery shopping and delivering prescriptions to seniors at home.