Like all business entities, charity organizations have faced hardships with funding because of the decrease in disposable as a result of the rising unemployment at the start of the pandemic. However, many nonprofit organizations have stepped up to help those struggling. In this blog, we will highlight the importance and impact of charitable organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nonprofit organizations are the backbone of our society and rise to the occasion in helping individuals in need when they need it. The pandemic has had many unanticipated consequences including unemployment, students schooling from home, increased homelessness and poverty, and isolation.

1. Food Banks

With schools out of session, and many parents unemployed, the pandemic left many families, children, and other adults wondering where their next meals were coming from. Many parents were left scrambling because they depended on school breakfast and lunch to keep their children fed and healthy. Over 50% of American students receive free or reduced lunch. As a direct result, in March alone, at the beginning of the COVID-19 spike in the U.S. foodbanks gave out 20% more food than the average month. Nonprofits stepped up to the plate to try to prevent the 1 in 6 people in America at risk for hunger can have food at their tables.

2. Technological Support

A large struggle in the sudden move from in-person learning to e-learning for students everywhere was having the technological support to participate in virtual classes. A 2018 study found that at the time 17 million students lived in homes with no high-speed internet and 7 million students did not have access to a computer at home. This posed a huge problem in figuring out how to keep children learning when many did not have access. Nonprofits and other charitable organizations nationwide stepped up to get children access to high-speed internet and computers so that they could continue their learning while stuck at home.

3. Shelters

With everyone quarantined for the first few months of the pandemic, our homeless population was left without their typical donations or help from people passing by. Throughout the pandemic, shelter workers, nationwide stayed open, despite the risk, and worked to keep as many of the homeless population as they could fed, sheltered, and equipped with personal protection equipment since homeless people are at increased risk of contracting the airborne virus.

4. Mental Health

Prior to the Coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. was already facing a mental health pandemic. For people struggling with depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and other mental health issues, the effects of the pandemic including isolation, unemployment, health issues, and economic stressors heightened the struggle they already face. Data shows that as the pandemic has progressed more adults are reporting signs of depression and anxiety disorders monthly. With non-essential appointments and therapy sessions being moved online, and most of the population isolating to slow the spread of the virus, those with severe mental health disorders are not getting the hands-on help they need. At the same time, access to mental health care can be very expensive. Nonprofits specializing in mental health and substance abuse have pivoted to make sure all their resources are available online. Group therapy meetings such as those dealing with alcohol and substance addiction, eating disorders, anxiety, and depression are now available for free online. Suicide prevention hotlines have remained available 24/7 throughout the pandemic and through their spike in calls. These organizations are working on the frontlines to make sure people who are struggling with their mental health due to COVID-19 and otherwise are not alone and have the support they need.

At R3 Design Studio, we are so grateful to the charitable organizations who have stepped up, despite lack of funds, to help struggling Americans through their heightened hardships due to the pandemic.

As a thank you, we are offering all nonprofit or charity organizations 20% off our services until the end of 2020.