Few of us expected COVID-19 to get this close to home, but it did.
With a pandemic comes so much more than monitoring your health and practicing social distancing. Around 500 New Albany-Plain Local School District students who relied on a free or reduced lunch have been forced to find an alternative, and people who lost their jobs due to businesses closing – whether permanently or temporarily – may experience financial insecurities. One effect is disheartening, earth-shattering and invisible: hunger.
The New Albany Food Pantry recognizes these problems, and it’s clear the community does too. Over the course of the pandemic, volunteers, Healthy New Albany employees and organizations have stepped up as more local families need assistance from the NAFP.
Angela Douglas, NAFP director, says the New Albany Community Foundation, local churches, school partners and nonprofits like the New Albany Women’s Network have pitched in to uplift families suddenly stricken with an urgent and unexpected need.
“We’ve always had a group of wonderful community supporters, but a crisis seems to help people slow down and remember what life is about – how fragile we all are as humans,” Douglas says.
The NACF expedited a $10,000 grant to the NAFP, a tremendous contribution since every dollar donated provides $10 worth of food and many of the upcoming NAFP fundraisers are expected to be canceled. Even though in-person donations have been suspended, hundreds of New Albany residents have given grocery store gift cards and donations via Amazon Clicklist.
It may seem like a lot, but the pantry isn’t just providing groceries through a drive-up service to eliminate contact. School break boxes, originally designed to help families during spring break, go to families until the summer meal program begins.
“Adding these weekly food boxes in addition to our normal pantry shopping operations has increased our need for food and money to purchase food,” Douglas says.
The NAFP is gaining more than monetary and physical items, it’s also received praise from its clients, proving its efforts are making an impact.
“Thank you all so much for being a light in my (and my son’s) lives. You will never truly know how grateful I am for each of you. Your smiles, graciousness, your time and just your person
means so much. You’ve forever blessed our lives,” says an anonymous client.
Another client says the pantry has helped their large family.
“You don’t realize what a difference this food is making,” they say. “I don’t know what I’d be feeding my three children if it weren’t for the pantry.”
The NAFP understands that it’s not the only community experiencing difficult times – especially since food pantries across Ohio are also in high demand, thus items normally provided by the Mid-Ohio Food Collective are scarce. So, it teamed up with Walnut Ridge and other central Ohio areas to provide and share resources.
“The nature of this pandemic, the spreading virus, reminds us that we are all connected, literally and figuratively,” Douglas says. “The world is much smaller and more interdependent than many realize on a daily basis. Our barriers are, in many respects, imaginary and contrived.”
Even in these uncertain times, Douglas and her team are positive and appreciate every helping hand – even if they’re six feet away.
“It's a joy to be able to work alongside caring citizens to care for our neighbors,” Douglas says, “which is exactly what we all should be doing – in the difficult days of a crisis and in the happy days of normal life.”
Beyond New Albany
Helping your community is vital during the pandemic, but it’s also important to realize that millions are facing hard times across the country and world. Feeding American is the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization and it’s currently working overtime.
The organization recently launched the COVID-19 Response Fund that will help individuals facing hunger and food banks that provide resources. Visit www.feedingamerica.org to learn more about its efforts and how you can help.
A Solid Foundation
The New Albany Community Foundation is a positive force, and its efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic prove its passion for helping not only its community but central Ohio.
“The response to this adversity underscores that our community knows how to come together. We share concern for family, friends and neighbors across central Ohio as well,” the NACF says in a statement.
Including the $10,000 expedited grant to the New Albany Food Pantry, the foundation also provided the following:
- $10,000 grant to NAPLS “to provide resources to directly support student learning and individual student needs to protect the safety and welfare of our children during the COVID-19 health crisis.”
- Provided a $20,000 grant to the COVID-19 Fund of The Columbus Foundation, which is supporting a number of initiatives to help central Ohio residents.
Additionally, the Jefferson Series featuring Michael Phelps has been postponed to 2021. To learn more, read More than Gold on page XX.
For more information about how the NACF is helping during the pandemic, visit www.newalbanyfoundation.org.
Powerful Numbers
Between mid-March and the beginning of April, the New Albany Food Pantry compiled an impressive number of items to help students and families in need. And they aren’t slowing down.
- More than 600 boxes of donations via Amazon
- At least 726 items, many of which were cases of products
- Donations from 213 people/families
- The donations weighed nearly 5,500 pounds
- 25 activity bags for local students and kids, which were assembled by a single donor
- $15,000 from individual donors
Lydia Freudenberg is an editor. Feedback welcome at lfreudenberg@cityscenemediagroup.com.
