Coronavirus: Health service giving back to SoCal seniors in need during pandemic

CITY OF COMMERCE, Calif. (KABC) -- Rosie Berumen and her team at AltaMed Health Services are giving back to their senior citizen patients in need who are at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The team put together kits full of packaged foods like peanut butter and apple sauce, along with toiletries for seniors with limited access to those basic necessities.

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The group initiative is sponsored through AltaMed Gives, a program funded by the health service's employees themselves, supporting their community of patients beyond their medical needs.

Along with the kits, the team will also check up on their patients.

"Making sure our employees are giving them a call, checking in on them, having their doctors directly connect with them to ensure they have all the resources that they need, and if they don't, we'll get them to them" said Berumen, development manager at AltaMed Health Services.

The small group spent two hours assembling the packages, but based on a big need they're seeing, Berumen anticipates this won't be the last time the group gets together.

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"We have a sizable list of participants we have identified as high risk and very critical in that they will have a shortage of food very soon, so we will need to do this again. We really do rely on our donors and our supporters to help us be able to do this," she said.

The packages will be delivered on another day, lending a hand to their senior patients in need with a simple gesture that will no doubt go a long way.