As all of us are told to stay home and stay safe to stop the spread of COVID-19, essential trips to get groceries or prescriptions are something that still needs to happen, but for people who are older or have underlying health conditions, the trip can be very daunting.
Connie Thomsen is just one of many seniors who is tapping into volunteers who are available with a call, text or email.
"My husband could be complicated by his health, and so I don’t even let him out," said Thomsen.
The websites Neighbors Helping Neighbors and Leave It To Us allow people to request deliveries of groceries, prescriptions, and any other items they may need.
On Neighbors Helping Neighbors, you go to the Delivery page and fill out your information, write in what you need, and tell them any store preferences you may have.
On Leave It To Us, you create a list of items you need, call or email the local coordinators listed on the website, give them your address, and they'll shop for you and deliver the items to your doorstep.
Customers then pay for the good upon delivery.
Hoang Ha built the Neighbors Helping Neighbors website in just a day.
"I wanted to use my skills in helping other people and being a computer programmer I can whip up a website pretty quickly," said Ha.
The Leave It To Us website is available in several other states including Alabama, California, Ohio, New York, Virginia, North Carolina and Louisiana.
It was started by University of Alabama student Michael Arundel.
Utahns Ben Haggard and Brock Goldstrohm reached out to him to see of they could get the program up and running in the Salt Lake area.
Now both websites have a lot of volunteers ready to help out.
Ha said he now has more than 600 volunteers available across Utah from Logan to St. George and they have completed around 370 errands or delivery requests.
Mitchell Mansell is one of the volunteers in the Salt Lake City chapter of Leave It To Us and he said, "What we’re trying to do is get the word out so we have more seniors, and more people who are immunocompromised that know about our program so that they can take advantage of it themselves."
Sophie Robison also volunteers with Leave It To Us in Utah and she said, "It’s just sad to see them doing things that they don’t need to when there’s plenty of able-bodied people that can do it for them, so I got involved because I can and there’s no reason why I shouldn’t."
Both websites say the feedback they've gotten so far is very positive and they hope more people take advantage of their free services.
Thomsen said, "I think it’s wonderful that they’re doing it. I think these kids have learned how to serve and they want to continue serving and I just think that this is a marvelous thing that they’re doing."
