Pandemic Ups Parents’ Creativity

In Newhallville, the Santiago family ventures out for food, then onto the playground.

While city officials are encouraging the public to ​“socially distance” themselves from crowds and to stay inside as much as possible in order to contain the spread of the CVOID-19 coronavirus, many families and youth are still having to go out to get breakfast and lunches from their local New Haven Public School (NHPS) to-go meal site.

Just before Santiago arrived at Lincoln-Bassett Community School for four meals for each of her kids, the school’s playground was empty and quiet. After getting their meals the Santiago family livened up the playground. The kids first ate their lunches on the playground as their mother used Clorox wipes to wipe down the playground’s equipment.

“Are you going to go on the monkey bars?” Santiago asked her kids from across the park while deciding what to wipe down. Her daughter nodded yes while eating a fruit cup from the packaged lunch. After five minutes Santigo was done sanitizing the park equipment and the kids were off and playing.

Wednesday was Santiago’s first time making use of the school’s to-go meal program. She decided to also make the walk worthwhile for the kids.

“There’s not a lot of food in the house, so this helps,” she said.

Santiago said she is no longer able to work at her warehouse job so she remains home with her kids, who are 3, 5, 7, and 11 years old.

Santiago said her biggest worry is that her kids will fall behind in school. ​“I don’t want them to have to repeat this year,” she said.

Santiago said her kids’ schools have provided them with coursework to do during the temporary closures.

Before leaving, after an hour of playing at the playground, Santigo and her kids were joined by Camp and her two boys, ages 5 and 8.

“There’s only so much you can do inside,” Camp said.

Camp remained in her car parked beside the park as her kids played for 20 minutes. ​“I don’t want to live in fear,” she said.

Like Santiago, Camp said she is worried the school’s closing will cause her kids to fall behind academically. ​“Some of us parents aren’t equipped to teach these subjects,” she said.

Since the schools closed, Camp said, she has been making her own homework packets for her kids. Camp said she wishes schools hadn’t closed, because she worries her kids are missing out. ​“My boys are missing out on extra school services like speech therapy and tutoring now,” she said.

The Stevenson brothers, Ahajja, 17, Terrance, 14, and Tayvon, 11, took the five-minute walk from home together to Lincoln-Bassett. Ahajja said their parents are at work for most of the day, so they decided to make use of the program while being home.

Tayvon said he is happy to be out of school . Ahajja said he is both sad and happy, because he enjoys school. ​“We get to play video games all day,” Ahajja said.

The school also provides visitors with fresh vegetables along with the packaged meals.

Also among Lincoln-Bassett’s visitors were two neighbors who preferred not to be named. The women picked up meals for their kids and some extras for other families in their neighborhood.

The first woman has two kids while the second has five.

“We are mostly using the free meals as supplements for snacks in the house. Now that the kids are home it’s like they eat 15 times a day out of boredom and because they’re growing children,” said the first woman.

The women described their neighborhood as a village. ​“When we heard from our neighbors that they couldn’t get out or were afraid to, we decided to ask for extra,” the second woman said.

The women asked why the to-go program doesn’t deliver to homes for families.

The two also said they are faced with hesitancy from the Lincoln-Bassett staff when asking for so many meals. ​“We shouldn’t have to send all our kids out to get food,” the first woman said. The women said the staff asked that during their next visit they bring their kids.