This is Only the Beginning...
With the news of schools closing hitting the public on March 13th, wheels started turning immediately to get a plan in place for our students and families. Connected Community Schools (CCS) utilizes LINK, a district referral system to identify students and families that are struggling, and we put our community expertise to work in connecting them with the services they need. Even with all 4 connected districts closed (Rome, Waterville, Dolgeville, and Town of Webb), LINK remains open and running.
With the help of the Rome City School District, word was put out that CCS would be hosting food pantries in two elementary schools, with possibility for a third location, and would operate Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 10:00-2:00, while schools were out. Beginning Wednesday, 3/18, families would be able to access this every other week in addition to daily grab and go hot lunches and breakfasts from the school district's Food Service Program, which began Thursday, 3/19. The CCS crew, joined by countless school and community members, present and ready to help in any way they could, worked tirelessly Monday and Tuesday coordinating the set up of the pantry in Staley and preparing the food bundles for families in both Staley and Gansevoort. As Wednesday approached, the team knew it would be a large undertaking but all were primed to face the challenge head on. Precautionary measures were in place to ensure the safety of both the team and the community - food packages would be placed one at a time outside the door where the family would then approach to pick it up and the process would repeat. Simple, right? The team soon learned the answer.
Wednesday came, and by 9:30 a crowd of over 60 families and individuals had gathered at the sites waiting to utilize the pantry. The team kicked it into high gear and before 11:00, the Staley site was completely out of food and team members were running back and forth to Gansevoort to replenish their supply. By the end of the day, after only 4 hours, over 1000 families were served, amounting to approximately 12,000 pounds of food, completely wiping out both pantries. To give some perspective, our holiday initiative handed out a comparable amount of food after a full week of serving families.
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Regrouping: New Schedule to Sustain the Model
To preserve both resources and team well-being, here's the new plan for food distribution:
- Gansevoort will be the sole pantry location
- Friday will run at Gansevoort as originally shared, from 10-2 or until food is gone
- Starting next week, the pantry will run as follows:
Gansevoort Elementary, 758 W. Liberty St
Tuesday and Thursday 12:00 to 2:00 pm
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