On June 4th, The Town of Southampton ended the free delivery service “All Seniors Assistance Program” (ASAP). ASAP was initiated at the direction of Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman to help keep seniors safe during the Coronavirus Pandemic.
ASAP operated from March 25th through June 4th and made nearly 1500 deliveries to Southampton Town senior residents. The Program relied on Town employees using Town vehicles to deliver groceries, pharmacy items and other essentials from more than 20 local businesses from Sag Harbor to Eastport. The Program was also assisted by several of our local elected officials and by deputies from the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office.
The program was ended because the Southampton Town Hall offices reopened to the public on Monday June 8th and Town staffing levels were increased as the Town entered Phase One of the Covid 19 reopening process. In addition, many of the participating businesses have been able to provide the public with greater access to their facilities, and some have expanded their services to accommodate their customers.
All participants in the program and all participating merchants received notification of the program terminating one week in advance. Since the program’s end many who utilized the service have thanked the Town for making this effort over the past 10 weeks. Some of the clients served responded with sincere words of thanks.
“Thank you very much for this wonderful service. I only used it once but felt safer knowing it was available,” said one participant in an email to the Town.
Another participant added, “Thank you! I am so proud of our town for offering this wonderful service - don’t know of any other place that did this.”
“I want to thank the staff who helped organize and implement this program,” stated Supervisor Schneiderman, “based on the responses we have received from the participants, the ASAP service filled a much needed void during this Covid 19 crisis. I also want to thank all of the participating merchants for their assistance.”
