Greetings!
Last week, I wrote to you all about the work we are doing in Southwest Philly. I want to update you on some of the amazing progress we’ve had concerning the exacerbated food insecurities in our community. I wrote to you all about the situation here on the ground; about families affected by layoffs and school closures who are faced with the unimaginable question of how to provide meals for their children during this health crisis. In my last letter, we were about to begin our second week of distributing food to families in need. However, Philabundance, the organization that supplied us with food, encountered some issues regarding COVID-19 and needed to shut down operations until they were able to sort things out. After I reached out to you all, we experienced an overwhelming outpouring of support.
So far, we have received about $3,500.00 from individual donors, which supports enough food for 70 families. In addition, we have partnered with The Simple Way, a food distributor in Northeast Philadelphia, who graciously supplied us with enough food for 20 families. It is because of your kindness that we were able to provide meals for 40 families in our second week, and about 60 families in our third week. We have been diligently working to secure food parcels from various distributors in Philadelphia like The Share Food Program, Sysco, and ACME Supermarket to help us meet the growing needs of our community. A special thank you to Rich Scott and Daniel Hirst who rallied friends and colleagues to donate food to this effort.
Breakfast & Lunch Grab N Go!
In addition to the work we are doing to provide bagged meals to families, The Common Place has partnered with Nutritional Development Services (NDS) to provide packaged breakfast and lunch to school-aged children in our community. Parents and/or children may receive up to 6 meals per child (3 breakfast packages and 3 packaged lunches) on Monday and Wednesdays from 11 AM -1 PM. More information regarding Grab and Go meals is available on their website – http://nutritionaldevelopmentservices.org
After School Program
The efforts to mitigate the novel coronavirus’ spread has affected our afterschool program in unexpected ways. Our staff has been diligently seeking innovative solutions to provide service to our constituents. Phone calls are being made to the caregivers and students of our after-school program to touch base, assess needs, and provide social/emotional support. Plans for a virtual afterschool program are underway. We will provide more information as it becomes available.
Saturday Enrichment Program
The Saturday Enrichment program has migrated to a digital format. To comply with social distancing guidelines, instructors meet with elementary and middle school students every Saturday via Zoom to pray, support, encourage, and help with school work.
Best COVID-19 Prevention Measures
Please stay at home if you are not feeling well
Wash/scrub your hands often for at least 20 seconds
Avoid touching your face until you have washed your hands
Avoid touching others in public venues
If you are displaying COVID-19 symptoms like fever, dry cough, and shortness of breath, call your doctor.
We Need Your Help
As the Governor’s mandate for non-essential employees to stay at home continues, The Common Place remains closed to the public. We do not see this as a time of fear but one of opportunity. Fulfilling our purpose as a resource to the community, we are committed to adjusting our programs to meet the needs of children and families while they stay at home.
TCP is working closely with our church partners to assess and meet the needs of the community. As we move forward, needs are changing and we are committed to staying in front of these needs to provide assistance as able.
Our income and ability to operate have been greatly reduced. We ask for your help to provide any donations possible to help us to continue our support of the Southwest Philadelphia community.
