As though critically ill children and their families at the Ronald McDonald House (RMDH) in Detroit were not already facing enough challenge, the Coronavirus pandemic adds fear and anxiety, another threat against which to take precaution.
To protect these high-risk children, family members and staff, a $5,000 grant from the Children’s Foundation COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund allows for a professional sanitization company to disinfect RMDH twice per week.
“We are doing all we can to limit the number of individuals coming in and out of the home,” said Jennifer Litomisky, executive director of Ronald McDonald House of Southeast Michigan. “But that’s not always possible, so we decided professional sanitization would be the best defense against any potential contamination.”
In addition to the sanitization, funding from the emergency grant provides two meals per day for the five families staying at RMDH. On a regular day, these families struggle to think about what to eat for dinner, but now many restaurants are closed, and grocery delivery times can be scheduled out up to a week, presenting unique challenges and an extra burden. To solve these issues, RMDH has been using food porch delivery services like DoorDash to make sure families are fed.
“Many Ronald McDonald Houses across the country have decided to close,” Litomisky said. “Timely and generous funding from The Children’s Foundation has allowed us to keep high-risk children with their families in a safe place so they can focus on one thing only: getting healthy.”
