Neighbors helping neighbors: Providing food to our Early Education and Child Care families

During the pandemic. Our Early Education and Care families have been deeply affected as they depend on our programs to provide comprehensive early childhood education, health, nutrition, and parent support services year-round.

While these programs have been temporarily suspended, our committed staff have come up with unique ways to support our families. Since the beginning of April, we have been distributing food and supplies to families twice a week at five locations. And, the impact of this is being felt deeply by our families.

“It's quite powerful when one small gesture can improve someone’s life so significantly,” says Dorothy Cole-Gary, the resourceful Y staffer with a big heart who is leading the initiative.

One single mother, who was furloughed from her job and instructed to self-quarantine due to a co-worker testing positive for COVID-19, struggled for days to get groceries for herself and her two young children, ages 10 and 2. That’s when Garfield site director, Charmaine Walker, took time out of her own schedule to personally deliver the much-needed food and supplies to the family, including a pair of shoes for the toddler. Charmaine says that the obvious expression of gratitude on the family’s faces is enough to inspire her to help more families.

Outside of food needs, diapers are in highest demand because most of our families have small children and necessities like diapers are hard to find right now at neighborhood stores.

Complete meals are supplies to all children in a household under the age of 18th. These meals always come with milk and families can get meals for breakfast and dinner.