Hello Neighbors,
Our friends in the Walnut Hills neighborhood pulled together some very useful community information to provide guidance and respite through the coronavirus outbreak. We hope it helps! Meanwhile, thank you, South Parkers, for all you’re doing to slow the spread of COVID-19.
I. Dayton Public Schools has Food Distribution Information available for its students and families. Each Wednesday, students who visit a distribution site will receive enough meals to last five days, which includes five breakfasts and 5 lunches. This change begins effective Wednesday, March 18th. Upcoming distribution dates include Wednesday, March 25th and Wednesday, April 1st. Food delivery for those who have already signed up will take place on Wednesdays between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Students must be present for food to be delivered.
Emerson Academy and Living Word Church are offering food truck meals until April 3rd, Monday-Friday, 12-1 in their parking lot at 501 Hickory. Along with their food truck, kids in the area can also go to the rear of building at cafeteria for breakfast and lunch meals daily, 8am to 2pm. No child ages 0-18 will be denied.
II. Spectrum’s parent company to offer free Spectrum wi-fi and broadband to households with children K-12 and/or college students for 60 days. Please follow this Dayton Daily News Article for more information. To sign up, call 1(844) 488-8395. Spectrum serves all of southwest Ohio.
III. Seniors Only (& others with vulnerable health) Shopping Hours: Many stores are offering “seniors only” hours and have changed their overall hours of operation to accommodate extra cleaning and stocking of shelves. Currently, public health officials maintain that people 65+ years old (and others with vulnerable health needs) should take extra care to practice social distancing, including asking others to shop for them. For people who may not be able rely on others to shop for them, here is a CBS News article that provides information about special “seniors only” hours for some stores in our area. Even if shopping during the “seniors only” time, please continue to practice “social distancing” until health officials advise otherwise. For further guidance, please see our listing of public health websites in this email.
IV. Local opportunities to help others and offer support to you:
A) Dayton Public Schools is looking for volunteers to help serve lunches out of designated school sites and in some cases to deliver lunches. Ruskin, Belmont and Wright Brothers in the east end are all looking for volunteers. You must be between the ages of 18-50 to be considered. Stop in at your local school to pick up a form.
B) Twin Towers Place is looking for cleaning supplies and volunteer support to clean common spaces. If you can help, contact Angel at 258-6820.
C) East End Community Services may need help with reaching out to seniors with which they work to encourage them and supply them with needed resources (food and medicine delivery, etc.). East End is also receiving lots of food daily in the afternoon for children and families. East End can be reached at: 937.259.1898. It is located at: 624 Xenia Ave., Dayton OH 45410.
D) With God’s Grace Mobile Food Pantry will be set up behind New Hope Church on Noel Court between Steele and Fillmore NEXT MONDAY (March 23rd) to provide boxes of food beginning at 5:30 pm. Volunteers will be needed beginning at 4:30 pm to direct traffic and help hand out food. Walk-ups will be received from 5:30 to 6 pm, followed by cars ONLY from 6 pm on. The food will be prepacked in boxes so it will be a “drive by” kind of thing. If you’d like to assist, please contact Libby Freeze at East End at 259-1898.
V. Where to Get Reliable Information about COVID-19 (Coronavirus): Please be cautious of information that may not be accurate. We encourage you to visit these websites regularly for up to date science-based information. These websites provided by public health officials are updated on a continuous basis as more information becomes available to them.
– Dayton & Montgomery County Public Health website
– Ohio Department of Health COVID-19 (Cornavirus) Informational Website
– Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
– World Health Organization
VI. Support Local Restaurants! The Downtown Dayton Partnership has a list of restaurant businesses that are open for curbside pickup. Please consider ordering take-out from any restaurant of your choosing. By supporting them during this time, you will help keep our neighbors employed and these amazing restaurants in business.
VII. Access to Virtual Concerts, Plays & Museums to Enjoy from Home: CNN published a wide array of offerings for people to engage with during this time of physical “social” distancing, which even includes The Social Distancing Festival, a website dedicated to providing live-streamed events from all around the world. Please follow this link for more information.
VIII. Mo Willems, children’s author and illustrator invites you into this studio Monday – Friday for the next few weeks each day at 1 PM. Starting this week, episodes of Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems will be posted at 1 p.m. Eastern time at The Kennedy Center website and will remain online to be streamed at any time.
IN SOUTH PARK:
– The Historic South Park Inc. members meeting for March 24th is cancelled.
– South Park Urban Garden is planning for spring! If you want to sign up for this season, email Luke southparkurbangarden@gmail.com
