“It never crossed my mind before that I’d be doing this,” said Marcia Duckley, a mother of four children who lost her hotel job this year. Even in affluent areas, cars are lining up for hours to take home free food amid an economy weakened by coronavirus.
In this Thursday, May 28, 2020, photo, Tom Cummings waits in his car as volunteers place groceries in the trunk during a food distribution drive sponsored by Island Harvest Food Bank in Valley Stream, N.Y. The Valley Stream stream donations were just one of many events Island Harvest has conducted throughout the area recently.
“They say, ‘Mom, when are you going back to work?’” she said through an open window as she edged her car slowly forward. In Valley Stream, she said, 1,124 boxes of food were distributed by volunteers, mostly to motorists, but also to several hundred people who came on foot. Each box contained roughly 25 pounds of milk, potatoes, apples, cheese and other produce.
“It’s not up to us to judge the type of car that comes though the line, or the way people are dressed,” she added. “It’s up to us to respect them.”The first woman waiting in the pedestrian line was indeed well dressed. She asked to be identified only as Maria G. and said she had been furloughed during the pandemic by the insurance company where she’d been an underwriter for 20 years.
The pandemic restrictions have been tough for her. She’s missed the opportunity to go to church and is asked to do medical appointments via telemedicine. In neighboring Connecticut, perennially ranked as one of the richest states, demand on food banks has also been intense. Also at the site were Yanet Belossantos and her husband, Alex Cepeda, who lost their jobs in March, she as a medical assistant, he as a chef. The Dominican Republic immigrants live in Hartford with her mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease.“We can’t go grocery shopping because we don’t have the money,” Belossantos said. “This is really helping us.”
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