Newhallville Feeds 400 Families

Four hundred families got food Saturday morning, and about 50 people got Covid-19 tests, at the Lincoln Bassett Community School in Newhallville, which has been hit hard both by the virus and its economic fallout.

The city partnered with Vertical Church and the Newhallville Community Action Network to distribute bags to over 400 families. Three hundred people showed up in person, and volunteers from the church drove about 100 more to seniors in the neighborhood, said Paul Bronson of Vertical Church.

Devin Smith of the Newhallville Community Action Network said it’s been hard getting enough food to meet the demand in the neighborhood. He said that the food distributions churches have been holding in the neighborhood have typically been running out. Before the pandemic, he said, 60 – 70 families would be a normal distribution day.

By a few minutes after noon when the Independent arrived, all but one bag had been donated. A young woman walked up and took the last one.

Earlier in the day, Mayor Justin Elicker (pictured above right) and State Rep. Robyn Porter (above left) had stopped by to help hand out a few bags.

Nearby on the school’s basketball court, volunteers with the Medical Reserve Corps had set up a testing site. By noon, Shanah Koplowitz said, the team had tested about 50 people for Covid-19.

More food distributions will take place in the neighborhood in the coming weeks. Smith handed out fliers, pictured below, with the times and locations.