April 16, 2020

BAMSI Staff Rally to Deliver Critical Necessities to Seniors

Dozens of staff members from Brockton Area Multi-Service, Inc. (BAMSI) took a break from working from home on Thursday, April 16, to help distribute 18,000 pounds of food to local low income seniors, as well as disabled individuals and families, BAMSI’s Dorn Davies Senior Center operates a monthly Brown Bag Program in partnership with the Greater Boston Food Bank. Normally, volunteers sort, package, and hand out grocery bags of food to the over 1,200 seniors, disabled individuals and families that benefit from the program every month. Due to the COVID 19 Pandemic and social distancing measures BAMSI had to figure out a new way to provide needed resources to this vulnerable population.

The Dorn Davies Senior Center operates out of the Campello High Rise, an elder and disabled community operated by the Brockton Housing Authority.  On the third Thursday of every month community volunteers and local residents gather on the lower level as part of the Brown Bag Program. This month, in order to protect the residents, who are especially vulnerable to COVID 19 due to their age, the Brockton Housing Authority asked BAMSI to find a new way to bring food to those who need it while limiting interpersonal contact.

BAMSI staff gathered in the parking lot of the agency’s main office at 7AM  to unload a tractor trailer full of food, pack it into grocery bags, and load those bags onto pickup trucks bound for one of 4 BHA locations: Belair Towers, Campello High Rise, Caffery Towers, and Sullivan Towers. Small teams of BAMSI staff met the trucks and hand delivered bags to needy residents, leaving packages in front of each apartment door to limit contact. Seniors were extremely grateful for the deliveries. Many have been unable to leave their homes for weeks and have had to stop working in order to protect their health.

This labor-intensive work around is just one of the ways BAMSI’s Dorn Davies Senior Center is finding ways to continue to provide services to those who need them most. Instead of serving hot breakfast to residents in the community room, staff bring trays of hot food to each apartment to make sure seniors are getting the right nutrition to keep their immune systems strong.

BAMSI CEO, Peter Evers, said “It is wonderful to see how our staff have come together to make sure the people we serve are taken care of in this difficult time.”

BAMSI is a private, non-profit human services organization providing services to adults and children with developmental disabilities, mental illness, behavioral health, and public health needs. Founded in 1975 in Brockton, BAMSI now provides quality, person centered, community-based services across Massachusetts.

For additional information visit www.bamsi.org or contact Ulea Grace Lago, BAMSI Executive Administration Officer at UleaLago@BAMSI.org or 774-480-4769.