National Council on Aging Executive Vice President and Chief Growth Officer Anna Maria Chavez joins Yahoo Finance’s On The Move to break down the monetary impact of COVID-19 on older Americans.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Well, as we watch the coronavirus crisis continue to unfold, we know that one of the most vulnerable groups is elderly Americans, and we're going to talk about that right now with Anna Maria Chavez. She is executive vice president and chief growth officer at the National Council on Aging. That organization is a partner of the Funding Our Future campaign. It's a group we feature each week only on Yahoo Finance that advocates for a secure retirement for all Americans. Anna, thank you for joining us.

So it seems obvious what some of the challenges are for older Americans, right, that they seem to be more vulnerable to this virus. But I also want to talk about it from a financial perspective because if you are in retirement or on the cusp of retirement and you see what's happening in the markets, then obviously you're vulnerable in that sense as well. So what message are you trying to put out to the folks you serve about that side of all of this?

ANNA MARIA CHAVEZ: Sure. Well, first of all, thank you for the opportunity to come on and talk about this. Clearly, older adults right now in the United States are at the epicenter of the COVID-19 discussion and impact. But for us, it's how do we talk about the health aspect of the situation, but also the economic security issues impacting older adults. Before we pivot into COVID-19, let me give you the context that older adults entered this pandemic.

First of all, in 2015, we had more older adults in food insecurity situations than the Great Depression. That means they were already struggling to make ends meet. They were already looking at the fact that they were going to struggle in retirement, and many of them were having to continue working in this environment. So let's-- let's segregate those populations. Let's talk about those who were already financially struggling. We're talking about 30 million older adults that were living below the poverty level and probably another, I would say, close to 40% of older adults in that category that were one incident away from poverty.

So I want to talk about what we're doing at the National Council on Aging to address that population and-- and those people struggling. I also think as they're dealing with the COVID-19 situation and looking at the marketplace, how do they ensure that their investments continue in their retirement plans? Many of them were working in organizations that had pensions. Many of those companies have frozen their pension plans. So I think it's both educating older adults how to keep a level set currently in retirement, but how do we talk to people who are providing services to older adults to understand the financial situation these individuals are-- are in--

ADAM SHAPIRO: So is there something you're doing right now, though, to help them? For instance, I have an elderly relative who could not get through on the phone to their financial advisor. That's not a life-threatening situation. You brought up food. We know food banks are shutting down. What are you guys doing to help the elderly or that we can do?

ANNA MARIA CHAVEZ: Well, there are several things you can do. First of all, we want to make sure people can get through this situation in financial stability. So first of all, we have a program called benefitscheckup.org. It's a free online service. You go onto our website at ncoa.org or you go directly to benefitscheckup.org, and you can enter very simple data points, where-- your zip code, if you're a veteran, and find out the current benefits you're eligible for. Many older adults don't realize they may qualify for what we call Snap or what you used to be called food stamps, right?

How do you continue to provide funding into your family to cover food and housing assistance? So that's one aspect. Let's get them to baseline. In addition, we are supporting other nonprofits who are getting food directly to individuals. So whether you're supporting Meals on Wheels, whether you're supporting Feeding America, it's important that we look at other nonprofit sector partners to ensure that we're building that ecosystem to support older adults.

So-- and I also want to say that there are those older adults who don't have the capacity to engage through applications on their iPhone, right, so they want an ability to have an 1-800 number. So we're setting up a system to partner with other nonprofits across the country to give direct access for information to older adults. Because the other thing we're seeing unfortunately are scams popping up.

So as we're talking about level setting for older adults, getting them the right information on COVID-19 from a health care perspective, we also want to ensure older adults are focused on the fact that there are bad actors in the environment right now. We call it, you know, the fake friends, so fake organizations calling up to say, hey, I've got some financial services I wanted to provide for you right now, or I have a retirement plan opportunity for you we need you to invest in at this time.

MELODY HAHM: Right.

ANNA MARIA CHAVEZ: So a major concern of ours.

MELODY HAHM: Yes. Anna Maria, I think it's interesting looking at your CV even, you were previously the CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA. So you have been on every end of the spectrum--

ANNA MARIA CHAVEZ: I have.

MELODY HAHM: --going from the youth to now the aging population. What specific learning lessons did you glean from working at the Girl Scouts to really innovate and-- and feel as though you're contributing to growth here?

ANNA MARIA CHAVEZ: So it's a great question, and I actually got an email from the current CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA because they're even being impacted, right? Girl Scouts aren't out in the marketplace selling their Girl Scout cookies. They aren't funding their community service projects. So it's impacting all of our sectors right now.

I think the biggest learnings I have is those organizations that have the imprimatur, the history, and the brand recognition, now is our opportunity to stand up and say, here's the factual information about COVID-19 from a health care perspective, and here are the trusted resources and partners that you should go to to get advice on how you're going to manage your finances during COVID-19 and outside of this pandemic and how we can shore up the infrastructure now.

My biggest concern and what I've gleaned after 30-- almost 30 years of public services, my biggest concern is about shoring up the nonprofit sector, the individuals that are supporting our older adults, our [INAUDIBLE] community, that they are viable when we come out of the pandemic. Many of them are shutting down because they don't have donors donating now. They've stopped their fundraising efforts to support their ongoing costs, and they're starting to lay off individuals in these nonprofit sector organizations.

And so I guess I'm also ringing the bell to those listeners and those viewers today who have opportunities to donate to the nonprofit sector. This is the time, and look to those of us who've been in the marketplace for 70 years or more to give you opportunities to invest in creative opportunities that we're standing up right now to address the COVID-19 situation.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, there's no shortage of need right now. Thank you very much for your time. Anna Maria Chavez is National Council on Aging Executive Vice President and Chief Growth Officer. We appreciate your time.