Written by Stephen Hamlin, Board President, North Avenue Cooperative – Vermont
Spring 2020 was upon us and plans were being made for the usual work of paving and tree maintenance when COVID-19 hit. Almost as quickly as we heard about the virus, Vermont’s Governor put us under a Stay Home, Stay Safe order. Little did we know that our lives were going to change as people were laid off, businesses and schools closed and the government mostly shut down. Folks were now at home and asked not to go out unless they absolutely had to.
Our Maintenance Manager came up with Operation Community Watch to check on our residents. We split up the streets and called every resident to check on their family’s health and asked that they let us know if things change. We reached back out about a week later to our elderly neighbors to make sure they were still fine. The Board adopted a plan for our property management company to work with any resident having problems paying lot rent, and to waive late fees during the pandemic.
The government started organizing free food distributions across the state for those that had their circumstances change. Our maintenance manager, along with myself and my wife picked up food for 12 families and other community members volunteered to go out and help share it with neighbors. Masks were going to be required to go anywhere so we contacted the mayor’s office and they dropped off 100 masks for distribution in our community.
Three months into the pandemic I was contacted by Feeding Chittenden, our local food shelf, to see if we would be interested in having our own food distribution event for residents. Of course I said yes, and they delivered food enough for 65 families per our request. After it was unloaded they took pictures of the food and our volunteers and asked if we would be interested in doing it again in the future to which we said yes.
They brought us both perishable and non-perishable foods vegetables, fruits, breads, pastries, even unopened cases of candy they said was for the kids. We got the word out by email, bulletin boards, and word of mouth and had the event on a Saturday morning. Another board member showed up to help and brought items donated by Vermont Catholic Charities. We served 39 families no questions asked that day. When we finished, anything that was left was donated to a local food pantry (just down the street) that they gave out the next day. We plan on having another event in the future.
This is the way our ROC is dealing with the crisis – showing up as a community and everyone helping each other.
North Avenue Cooperative has shown the importance and impact of community partnerships and resources. If you have a story about how your ROC is supporting residents at this time, we want to hear from you! Please contact your technical assistance provider to share your story.