In the Bronx, comfort came from close to home Cash assistance meant all the difference for these families in need.
COVID-19 brought Benito’s life to a halt.
tenant of their three buildings, to their Family Support and Head Start families, to home- based child care providers and parents, to members of youth programs and more. The team checked in with hundreds and hundreds of New Yorkers every week for several months to be sure that anyone they served in their many capacities got what they needed. With COVID relief support from funders like Robin Hood, WHEDco was able to distribute $180,000 in grocery store cards to more than 700 families and 28,000 meals and snacks to members of the community. For Benito and his family, this level of need was a first. He characterized the generosity of Robin Hood donors like this: “For people like me, we were in a kind of stable situation,” said Benito. “When you just go down deep, that help is like a miracle. It’s like if God just looked down and said, ‘I’m helping you out.’” With the gift cards, they were able to buy supplies like toilet paper and paper towels to get through quarantine. With restrictions at medical clinics still in place, Benito is waiting to go back to work, but he knows that the worst is behind him. “It’s something that made a difference between being in need and having something to eat,” he said. “You can think a little bit clearer, and say, ‘OK, this will be all right. Everything will be all right.’”
S T O R I E S F R O M T H E F I E L D
His job, as a medical translator, ended as clinics closed. The colleges that two of his three daughters attended shut down, so he drove to Boston and D.C. to pick them up. His wife lost her job, too, and soon the house was full. “We had no income coming in after March,” said Benito, who spent two months waiting for unemployment benefits to kick in. Worried about how he’d feed his family, he got an unexpected call from a longtime Robin Hood grantee, the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco), the community development organization that owns the Bronx apartment complex where he’s a tenant. “We were scared,” said Benito. “WHEDco called, and they asked me, ‘what do you need?’ They sent me gift cards to go to the supermarket, and they brought food.” They helped him fill out the paperwork for SNAP (food stamp) benefits.
The feeling, he said, was like being rescued.
“That was amazing. That was like if you’re in the middle of the desert, and you get a cold Coca-Cola. That was just really, really appreciated.”
Throughout the pandemic’s peak, WHEDco workers made weekly calls to every single
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