Consider contacting your local public school district about helping with preparation or distribution. In cities such as Washington, officials have said they will provide meals to students at off-site locations. “The closure of those schools really puts families and communities at risk.” This goes for working parents, as well, many whom may have to stay home with their children during school closures. “The sad fact is that our society relies on schools so heavily to provide basic services to kids,” he said of the U.S., where millions of students receive free or reduced lunch. When schools close, many students who rely on subsidized lunches or special education programs suffer, said Pallas. Find ways to help feed students who depend on school lunchesĪs of Friday afternoon, a number of states had announced plans to shut down all K-12 schools for at least a week due to the COVID-19 outbreak, including Ohio, Maryland, Oregon, New Mexico, Michigan and West Virginia, as well as major urban school districts such as Atlanta, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. to Nourish Now after the event was canceled due to the virus. Nancy Clack, who is on the board of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, said her organization donated food from its three-day conference in D.C. In Tennessee, for example, the Mid-South Food bank is assembling boxes of nonperishable food for those in quarantine, and others will accept donations online.Īdditionally, if organizations that you are a part of have to cancel their events last-minute due to COVID-19, consider donating any meals that would otherwise go to waste. are now putting their resources toward dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak directly. Organizations like Feeding America allow you to search for food banks in your area. Supermarket chain Harris Teeter on Friday said that key items in its stores may be out of stock due to high customer demand, and some food banks in Washington state have reported that people have come to their facilities for the first time because their regular grocery stores don’t have what they’re looking for.Īaron Pallas, a professor of sociology and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College, suggested donating to “food pantries and other locations designed to provide emergency access to families with food insecurity.” This is the case in Washington state, where dozens have already died from the virus, and states like Ohio, where food banks have seen volunteers cancel shifts. Donate to, volunteer at your local food bankĭue to panic surrounding the virus, donations to many local food banks are down significantly. Nevertheless, communities are stepping up to offer assistance to those in need right now, in an effort to fill the gaps. “It does need to come from the centralized government.” “When it’s such a large-scale problem, it’s not the kind of thing that individual generosity will be able to solve,” said Shore-Sheppard. Indeed, this is the largest economic rescue bill in history. Lara Shore-Sheppard, an economics professor at Williams College, stressed that the virus is so widespread that the onus has fallen on the Trump administration and Congress to pass legislation that will affect long-term, tangible change within these vulnerable communities in the U.S. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill later on Wednesday. The Trump administration and lawmakers in Congress negotiated a nearly $2 trillion economic rescue bill that will provide direct payments to most Americans, expand unemployment benefits and grant federal loans to small businesses so that they can keep workers on the payroll during the outbreak. has more than 54,000 cases and 737 deaths so far from COVID-19, as of March 25. Organizations that already care for vulnerable populations, such as homeless shelters and nursing homes, have struggled to keep facilities clean and enforce practices such as social distancing to quell the rapid spread of the virus. Tens of thousands of laid-off workers have filed for unemployment insurance in the past week, and the number of jobless Americans surpassed levels not seen since the Great Recession. As schools close and workers across the country are laid off due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, outbreak, many of the most vulnerable populations in the United States face stressors that extend beyond the immediate health concerns spurred by the global pandemic.Īcross the country, students who rely on free or subsidized lunches could have their access to steady meals compromised by the extended school closures.
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