There are many practical ways to help during the coronavirus pandemic, whether you have five minutes, five hours, or a specific professional skill. The most effective actions fall into a few categories: protecting people around you from infection, supporting organizations that serve vulnerable communities, volunteering your time or expertise, and looking after the mental health of people in your life.
Prevent Spread in Your Own Circle
The simplest form of help starts with not making things worse. The CDC recommends core prevention strategies including good hygiene, staying home when you have respiratory symptoms, and keeping distance from others in your household who aren’t sick. Wearing a mask in crowded or indoor settings further lowers transmission risk. These steps matter most for protecting people around you who are older, immunocompromised, or otherwise vulnerable.
Staying current on vaccination is another direct way to help. The CDC recommends a 2025-2026 COVID-19 vaccine for everyone ages 6 months and older. The updated vaccines are reformulated to match currently circulating strains, and protection from previous doses fades over time. Getting vaccinated yourself reduces the chance you’ll unknowingly pass the virus to someone who can’t fight it off as easily.
Donate Blood or Plasma
Blood supply shortages have been a recurring problem throughout the pandemic, as donation drives were canceled and regular donors stayed home. If you’ve received an FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, you can donate blood as long as you feel well and meet standard eligibility criteria, with no waiting period required. This is different from some other vaccines (like measles or chickenpox), which require a two- to four-week wait. Contact your local Red Cross or blood bank to schedule an appointment.
Support Food Banks
Food insecurity spiked during the pandemic and remains elevated in many communities. Food banks consistently need shelf-stable items like canned soups, chili, and vegetables; pasta and rice; peanut butter; cereal; cooking oil; 100% fruit juice; and infant formula and baby food. A good rule of thumb: if you wouldn’t eat an item yourself because of its condition, don’t donate it.
If you’d rather give money than food, financial donations often go further because food banks can buy in bulk at lower prices. Reach out to your local food bank or hunger relief organization to ask what they need most right now. Many also accept volunteers for sorting, packing, and distributing food. Each organization runs its own onboarding process, so check their website for volunteer applications and scheduling.
Volunteer Your Time Remotely
You don’t need to leave your house to make a meaningful difference. Several organizations offer virtual volunteering roles that fit around a regular schedule:
- Online tutoring: Multiple platforms connect volunteers with underserved K-12 students who need help with reading, math, science, or coding. Most ask for one or more hours per week.
- Transcription and archiving: The Smithsonian Institution recruits online volunteers to transcribe historical documents and edit Wikipedia articles related to their collections, making cultural resources more accessible.
- Translation: If you’re fluent in more than one language, Translators Without Borders pairs volunteers with international organizations working on crisis relief, health, and education. Their network translates roughly 10 million words per year.
- Human rights research: Amnesty International’s Amnesty Decoders network uses digital volunteers to help investigate human rights violations around the world.
- Court advocacy for children: Some organizations, like Family Law CASA, train volunteers to serve as Court Appointed Special Advocates for children in custody situations. Training is provided, and the role is largely virtual.
Volunteer as a Medical or Public Health Professional
If you have a healthcare background, the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) coordinates emergency preparedness and response efforts across the country. Doctors, nurses, EMTs, pharmacists, and other medical professionals can register with a local MRC unit to be deployed during surges or public health emergencies. Retired professionals are welcome, and U.S. citizenship is not required.
Volunteers with no medical background are also needed. The MRC relies on non-clinical volunteers for logistics, communication, and operational support. All volunteers go through an orientation, and front-line roles involve more specialized training covering basic life support, CPR, first aid, and recognizing signs of hazardous material exposure. To get started, find your nearest MRC unit through the HHS website and contact the local coordinator.
Give to Effective Relief Organizations
If your most available resource is money, directing it to highly rated organizations ensures it reaches people who need it. Direct Relief, which delivers medical supplies and protective equipment to healthcare workers worldwide, earned a 100% efficiency rating from Charity Navigator and was ranked fifth on the Forbes 2025 Top Charities list. Charity Navigator also named it one of the Best Humanitarian Relief Charities for 2025. Before donating to any organization, checking its Charity Navigator score helps you verify that funds are being used effectively.
Check on People’s Mental Health
One of the most overlooked ways to help during the pandemic is simply paying attention to the people around you. Surveys consistently show that the most common mental health effects of the pandemic are trouble sleeping and persistent anxiety or nervousness. Depression and loneliness are reported less frequently but have remained steady over time rather than improving. Substance use among adults has also increased.
If someone in your life seems off, there are specific things to watch for: expressions of helplessness, sadness, irritability, or hopelessness. Difficulty focusing on daily tasks or abandoning activities they used to enjoy. Noticeable changes in appetite, increased drinking or substance use, unexplained body aches, or sleep problems. You don’t need to be a therapist to help. Asking a direct question, like “How are you really doing?”, and then listening without rushing to fix things can be genuinely powerful.
For anyone in crisis, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7 by call, text, or online chat. It’s free and confidential. Many mental health professionals also offer phone and video appointments, which removes the barrier of traveling to an office during a time when leaving the house already feels harder than it should.