Oklahoma Nonprofit Focused On Mental Illness Donates Meals, Flowers To Help Clients

A Green Country nonprofit is doing what it can to support people despite physical distancing guidelines.

Staff and members at Crossroads Clubhouse are delivering homemade meals and donated fresh flowers to members twice a week.

"It makes them smile,” said Crossroads Clubhouse Unit Coordinator and Master Gardner Joan Crager.

Crossroads Clubhouse is a nonprofit that helps adults with mental illness.

"We have programs for housing, education, wellness, and employment," said Development and Public Relations Coordinator Scott McClung. "We want people to socialize and rise above the stigma that is associated with mental illness."

They usually try and plan meals and activities so members can be together and not isolated - a mission COVID-19 restrictions have made difficult. Staff decided, if members couldn't come to them, they would go to members.

"What the meal deliveries are doing is keeping people not just fed, but to stay in touch with each other," said McClung.

Isolation can be tough for anyone, but for someone with mental illness, it can be even more difficult.

"Really it causes me to close inward and not look at the world around me," said Crossroads Clubhouse member Sheree Allen.

Which is why these visits are so important and so much more than just a meal.

“It is a way of us saying, ‘we love you, we care about you, and we have your best interests at heart,’" said Crager.