Imperial Valley and Coachella PSCDC Coordinators Respond Quickly to COVID-19

Since the start of the state-wide quarantine due to COVID-19 in mid-March, PSCDC Resident Services Coordinators in Imperial Valley and Coachella acted quickly to gather the necessary resources and connections to continue providing essential services to our residents. The teams in Imperial and Coachella collected contact information from all of our residents and began making weekly follow-up calls to ensure every resident is healthy, safe, listened to, and have their essential needs met.

Imperial Valley and Coachella Resident Coordinators can continue food and resource distributions thanks to the enormous generosity of our local partners at Imperial Valley Food Bank, USDA's The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), and FIND Food Bank in Coachella. PSCDC Coordinators are mandated to wear protective gloves and masks while facilitating distributions and practice measures that encourage swift distributions like pre-portioning food and serving small groups at one time.

Through the period of March to April 10th, a total of 10 food distributions served 20 PSCDC properties in Imperial Valley and Coachella, with a total attendance of 4,008 residents. Five of our senior properties received four of the food distributions, which were closed sites and supplied only our senior residents. The other six distributions provided relief to 15 PSCDC properties and their surrounding communities. Cesar Chavez Villas in Coachella has two different programs, the TEFAP USDA Commodities and the emergency food program from the FIND Food Bank in Indio, CA. Both programs at Cesar Chavez Villas assisted 705 people in March and 664 people in April. PSCDC teams will also start to invite more properties to food distributions, which will cause resident participation numbers to rise. During distributions, PSCDC Coordinators also handed out informational Census flyers in English and Spanish to encourage residents to respond to the Census.

Looking for more food distributions? Click here.

PSCDC Imperial Valley staff are also closely working together with Heffernan Memorial Healthcare District in Calexico to provide face masks and gloves to our senior residents. Their charitable donation will help to protect and prevent outbreaks in our most vulnerable communities. We estimate that 515 seniors will benefit from their donation.

Thanks to the quick response and preparations of the PSCDC teams, as well as our incredible partners, our residents in Imperial Valley and Coachella can continue to receive essential food supplies and informational resources to support them during this challenging time.

If you are looking for some resources regarding COVID-19, including assistance with food, finances, childcare, utilities, and much more, click here.