Being a good neighbor

We were packing rows and rows of boxes with maseca, rice and beans, cabbage, onions and apples, for families in need at the upCounty Consolidation Hub at the BlackRock Center for the Arts. Grace picked up this squash and marveled at its beauty, beaming a smile that no mask could hide. As a community advocate and BlackRock Board member, when the pandemic hit she asked if the Center could be used to store supplies for vulnerable families in the community. From initially providing food, diapers, formula and other essentials to 20 families at the trailer park in Germantown, the effort grew as the need skyrocketed; it now serves 850 families in need. "We had a really poor community but it wasn't very visible," Grace says, "but when Covid hit we started seeing the need of people who were already having a hard time." Grace is an immigrant to the US from Bolivia; her mom was a political asylee. She was 8 when she arrived here. "I keep thinking if I was that age right now and Covid hit, we would have had to ask for help." She remembers her story, and then the tears start. I wish I could have given her a hug; instead we wrap our arms in an air hug. "The children get me," she says. "When we drop off the food and I see their little faces, they get so excited; they know they're going to have food.""It's a sense of being a good neighbor," she says, "we lost that." Everybody was living independently, doing their own thing, but Covid brought us to our knees, she says. "We forgot what it is to be a good neighbor. Out of everything that is the beautiful thing that came out of it - a silver lining of humanity. It's brought out the worst in people; it's also brought out the best. I try to connect those people; everybody can do a little bit."