RABHYA MEHROTRA PHOTO
“This is heaven-sent,” said Lexy Johnson. “Seriously, I can’t thank you enough.”
Johnson and her friend, Nisha Mirror (pictured), came in their car to a food distribution site set up Thursday by the police substation on Charles Street in Dixwell. They were among hundreds of households to pick up food.
Johnson mentioned that she had lost her job due to Covid-19 and had three kids at home to feed. “We’re all going through a pandemic, you know?”
“I’m a single mom,” added Mirror. “This means so much to me.”
“What you’re doing is wonderful. Because it means people in the community still care, we still have hearts” said Johnson.
“Thank you for coming,” said Metashar Dillon of the Kingdom International Economic Development Corporation (or KIEDC), an organizer of the giveaway. “I’m going to keep fighting for you.”
Dillon (in red coat) leads the packed drive- through.
Dillon led a crew of 20 volunteers at the substation as they directed the drive-through and walk-up hand-offs, lifted pallet after pallet of boxes from the truck, and loaded groceries into cars. The rain came down in sheets, but that hardly stopped demand: people kept on coming and coming.
Dillon reminded each customer to wear a mask as they rolled down their windows to ask for food. Meanwhile, the crew loaded boxes of fresh produce, bread, and milk into back seats.
The food boxes on Thursday’s distribution came from the USDA’s Farmers to Families program, which began in April in response to Covid-19.
“We’re running out of food,” said Dillon. “We had a whole truck. That’s 24 pallets with 64 boxes of food each, enough food for hundreds of families.” After four hours, all of those food boxes were gone.
“We’re going all around the city,” she said, pointing to the event flyer. “Rain or shine, we’re here because people need help. You wouldn’t believe how many more people need help because of Covid.”
Dillon is especially worried about the elderly. “I ask everyone, do you know an elderly person? Help them out by picking up food for them,” Dillon said. In fact, Dillon encouraged everyone picking up food to pass on the favor.
Thomas.
One such person was Joyce Thomas, who was driving through Dixwell to get a Covid test when she saw the sign for the food distribution.
“I just had to go in and get some food for my neighbors!” she said. “I’m blessed to have a car with gas and the ability to travel. So many people who are hungry don’t have that.” She planned on giving the food to elderly neighbors and those who “just needed some help.”
Food insecurity is a personal topic for Thomas: she, too, has experienced hunger. “I know what it feels like,” she said. “I was even homeless at one point. Not because I was lazy or on drugs, but because I injured my arm, so I couldn’t work and earn money.”
“Thank you for looking out for your neighbors, for helping somebody else,” responded Dillon. “We like that.”
Tai Warren, who walked to the distribution
“I’m just grateful to receive this food, because I’ve been out of work since this whole thing started,” said Tai Warren, who walked up with a black metal cart. “And I have a family of four. My son is nine and my daughter just turned sixteen. Every bit helps.”
Warren planned to use some of his groceries to help others. “One of my neighbors, he’s elderly, and the other can’t walk really well. If I cook something, I’ll bring it and feed them, ” said Warren. “Somebody helped me out, so I’m gonna help somebody else out, too.”
Running out of Supplies
Dillon teared up as she spoke about her limited stock.
“Tomorrow, I’m trying to go and help the elders on South Genesee Road,” she said. “I asked Alder Honda Smith, and she said we should expect 900 elderly people. Nine hundred! And that’s not even counting the rest of community.”
She has only one truck of food left, she said. It won’t be enough.
“I’ve been hungry, too.” Dillon’s voice wavered. “When you don’t have resources, when your family doesn’t have resources, when your background doesn’t have resources, you start to wonder: what are you going to do?”
She urged the community to help, noting they can donate here.
Thank you to all the people who are working to get food donations up the people who need them. The media may be broadcasting a little story here or there about the newly homeless, newly jobless or newly hungry but the need is much greater than most people realize, and with the fires in the West Coast and the hurricanes and floods in the South and the Derecho storm damage in the Midwest and the Great Plains, many more people are displaced, hungry and have no means to feed and house themselves. The eviction moratorium is ended, so renters are being kicked out, small landlords who depend on their rental income to pay their property expenses, who have lost rental income and will soon be facing liens on their property for the lack of funds to pay their rising taxes and utilities. Also jobs across entire industries have been lost. We are facing a second Great Depression, and we need to elect officials who will face this pandemic and its economic fallout head on. During the first Great Depression and the President Roosevelt created the New Deal programs which provided relief to many who were out of work, while improving parks, infrastructure and public use facilities.Until a visionary is elected to office who will lead this country out of the crisis we are facing now, it is up to the voters to keep pressure on our elected officials to feed the hungry, house the homeless, care for the sick and injured, and create jobs for the public works and infrastructure that our country so desperately needs. If you are fortunate enough to still be working, and you can afford to help, please donate to food banks, food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters for the homeless and for women and children escaping domestic violence.