Neighbors aid neighbors during coronavirus pandemic: ‘Sometimes just that little bit will help’

From delivering care packages for seniors to cooking meals for laid-off workers and neighbors, community groups and individuals are lending a hand as the outbreak brings the city to a halt.

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Volunteers with community organization GoodKidsMadCity shop for groceries to distribute food to people in need during the coronavirus pandemic.

Volunteers with community organization GoodKidsMadCity shop for groceries to distribute food to people in need during the coronavirus pandemic.

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Janice Trice has been “baking a lot of pies” lately — including a sweet potato pie for a neighbor caring for a husband with dementia. A teen group that normally works to fight violence is helping seniors get essential products like hand sanitizer. A bartender in East Garfield Park is collecting donations to start cooking for her out-of-work neighbors. Other groups are bringing diapers and other supplies to new mothers who can’t go outside.

The actions are just a few of the many being taken by individuals and community groups across the city who have stepped up to help their neighbors and neighborhoods during the coronavirus epidemic.

“Sometimes just that little bit will help,” said Trice, a 74-year-old South Shore resident who is also making jams and jellies for her community. She says she is normally “very active” but with her church and community activities canceled she’s had more time to help others.

Trice has also been helped herself. Last week, she received a care package from My Block, My Hood, My City and has been trying to do her part by sharing its contents with others on her block.

“It’s not a good feeling,” Trice said of being cooped up inside and cut off from her community. “We need to watch out for our neighbors.”

My Block, which has received a nod from the Obama Foundation for its work, is focusing primarily on helping seniors — over 1,200 have signed up, and more than 300 packages have been delivered so far — who are at the greatest risk when it comes to coronavirus, the group’s founder, Jahmal Cole, said Friday.

“I feel like there’s a prayer in every pandemic,” Cole said. “When the city is overwhelmed, we have to come together.”

Cole said people can donate on the group’s website, formyblock.org, and also volunteer to do wellness check-ins with seniors by telephone.

Helping strangers

When Ivone DeJusus saw a post from My Block circulating on social media last week she immediately thought of her father.

“I signed him up, because we were going to the stores and not finding what we needed,” DeJesus said.

A few days later, her father, Angel, received a package with food and other essentials, like toilet paper, that would help keep the 71-year-old diabetic from having to go out himself.

“I think it’s amazing that at a time like this when people are thinking over themselves, these people are coming together to help people they don’t know,” DeJesus said.

In addition to groceries, volunteers with GoodKidsMadCity plan to help people in need of cash support by establishing an emergency fund from some of the donations.

In addition to groceries, volunteers with GoodKidsMadCity plan to help people in need of cash support by establishing an emergency fund from some of the donations.

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Teens step up

Alycia Kamil and Damayanti Wallace of the youth-led, anti-violence organization GoodKidsMadCity are also doing their part.

Since last week, they’ve raised $7,000, which has been used to buy groceries for anyone who needs them. The deliveries are organized online through Google docs, where families and individuals can make specific requests for items they need most.

“One person asked for extra bottled water for their breathing machine,” Wallace said.

They’re also using donations to create an emergency fund to give families cash assistance in the coming weeks. To donate or sign up, people can reach out to the group via their Instagram and Twitter handles @GKMC18.

“For a lot of people [on the South and West sides] that we specifically targeted, they’re already living in food deserts, so access to groceries is kind of already hard,” Kamil said. “I really wanted to just figure out a way to provide for people. The thing with organizing is you do something for people that you would want to be done for yourself.”

Kanye kicks in

Even Kanye West has pitched in to the efforts, making “a generous donation” to We Women Empowered, a South Side social empowerment initiative owned by Josephine “Mother” Wade.

The organization is delivering three meals daily to elderly residents in Chatham, Woodlawn, Washington Park, South Shore, Grand Crossing, Englewood, Hyde Park, Grand Boulevard, Auburn Gresham and Avalon Park.

“Today when I got that call ... I was beyond words,” said Wade via statement. “And in one phone call, in an instance today, our world was changed.”

Jessica Romanowski checks her list of supplies Friday at a donated commercial kitchen space where she is making meals for people in the service industry who have been laid off and her neighbors who can’t go out to get food due to economic or health issues during the coronavirus pandemic.

Jessica Romanowski checks her list of supplies Friday at a donated commercial kitchen space where she is making meals for people in the service industry who have been laid off and her neighbors who can’t go out to get food due to economic or health issues during the coronavirus pandemic.

Provided

Others, like Jessica Romanowski of East Garfield Park, are just looking to help their neighbors and friends any way they can — and also stay sane themselves during the uncertainty the virus has brought.

Romanowski, who works in the food industry and as a bartender, has raised $1,300 so far to help cook for those in need.

Organizations like Windy City Harvest and Soup and Bread also pitched in by providing supplies, including fresh produce.

What started as a plan to distribute meals to help others furloughed from their service industry jobs has since expanded into Care Kitchen Chicago, which is soliciting donations on GoFundMe, to include 23 people, like a neighbor who is undergoing treatment for cancer.

After purchasing groceries and food containers, Romanowski, who is working out of a donated commercial kitchen space and is industry certified to handle food, said she plans to start delivering the meals next week.

Like the other organizations, she’s taking extra precautions to sanitize containers and limit contact with the people she’s delivering to in order to help stop the spread of the virus.

“I’m just trying to make it work and doing the best I can,” she said.

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