Photo courtesy of Better Block.
The community plaza in Vickery Meadow where the Department of Justice funded a pop-up design from the Better Block last year is now being used for refugee outreach amid the coronavirus crisis.
The International Rescue Committee set up shop at the TBK Bank Plaza handing out bags of food and supplies for pandemic relief. The neighborhood is home to thousands of refugees.
“When the outbreak really started to take place, we immediately saw a need in our clients for food and, you know, it’s something that everyone’s seen,” Isabella Chamberlain told KERA. “It’s been hard to find in the stores.”
The bags contain rice, beans and canned food, along with produce grown in the IRC’s gardens – “cilantro, onions and daikon radishes, a popular item among some of the clients,” KERA reports.
“It’s been hard for families that all of a sudden all their kids are at home,” Chamberlain told KERA. “We have families of six, seven, eight, nine, 10 people living in apartments, so sometimes it’s hard to get out to the store in general.”
In addition to providing supplies, the IRC has translated flyers with information about COVID-19.
