Texas REALTORS® Raise Funds to Keep Senior Residents in Their Homes During the Pandemic

On April 25^th, Rockwall, Texas REALTORS® Rick and Dianna Johnson of RE/MAX Landmark, took action to support their community’s most vulnerable population during COVID-19 (coronavirus): senior citizens. There are guidelines in place across the state urging seniors to limit their trips to grocery stores and keep their distance from other family members living outside the home in order to avoid the virus. But with an increasing number of seniors aging in place in their homes, many are left lonely and in some cases hungry and afraid.

REALTORS® Rick and Dianna Johnson offered handcrafted face masks, provided by Paradise Farms, for a minimum $10 donation to benefit Meals on Wheels Senior Services (MOWSS). The spread of COVID-19 caused the MOWSS kitchen to suspend its daily meal deliveries. The donations collected from the Rockwall community by the Johnsons are being used to put together emergency food boxes.

Dianna told Blue Ribbon News, “I love what Meals on Wheels does for the seniors in our community. I grew up in Rockwall,” she said, “and love giving back to the community. It is heartbreaking to think that a senior in Rockwall would not be able to eat and live safely in their home.”

Despite special shopping hours set aside for seniors at many grocery stores throughout Texas, Ben Chapman, a food safety specialist and professor at North Carolina State University, “Urges older adults and those at higher risk of complications from COVID-19 to take advantage of alternatives to in-person shopping trips, like asking friends or family to run errands, using a grocery delivery service, or opting for curbside pickup.”

Programs like the Meals on Wheels emergency food boxes are providing seniors who were independent before COVID-19 with some quality social interaction and keeping them out of nursing homes, which have seen high rates of positive coronavirus cases.

“Both my husband and I have family members that were able to stay in their homes through the efforts of Meals on Wheels,” Dianna said. “I believe that people don’t realize how many seniors in Rockwall live by themselves”

Programs like MOWSS of Rockwall County are vital to help seniors “live independently with dignity and respect in their own homes for as long as it is safely possible,” and movements like that of local REALTORS® Rick and Dianna Johnson are so important to the overall strength of the community.