Heart City Health Partners with City of Elkhart to Provide COVID-19 Care Packages

ELKHART, Ind. – Local news station WSBT22 reported the city of Elkhart is making the holidays safer for those in need during the pandemic. 25,000 people will benefit from this latest move.

Using CARES Act funding, the City of Elkhart is delivering items that will help those in need get through the pandemic.

Care package deliveries will be made at a number of locations, including cloth face masks.

“We have a mask like I am wearing here, we have a bottle of hand sanitizer, and we have a post card both in Spanish and English that is giving people some guidelines of how to have a safe holiday season,” said Corinne Straight-Reed.

She says the city is partnering with groups like the Council on Aging, Elkhart Community Schools, and Heart City Health.

“We have a robust group of community partners,” said Straight-Reed. “We are going to get as many of these in people’s hands as we can over the next week and a half.”

The city says the goal is to eventually give away 25,000 of these COVID care kits for distribution. Each agency or organization receiving them will then decide who gets them and the time frame for that.

The Council on Aging, for one, will be giving them to 100 clients this weekend.

“Close to 35% of our seniors are living on about $10,000 a year– that’s $800 a month. “It’s hard to get by living on such a small amount of money, they have had to do extra things to try and stay safe,” said CEO David Toney.

Heart City Health is also receiving the care packages to give out to their clients.

“We really appreciate the city giving us these masks, and it’s going to be a great help for some of our patients who maybe can’t afford masks,” said Clinical Manager Verla Curry. “We’re just very appreciative of it.”

In some instances, gift cards will be added to the care package. To watch the entire story, click here.