North End resident Lamarr Lockhart-Simmon is an essential worker, making deliveries for Amazon. Through his job, he is given personal protective equipment and disinfectant wipes. But for personal use, it’s been more difficult to get items like masks and hand sanitizer because successfully obtaining these supplies requires trips to multiple stores and more likely than not, the stores are sold out. And for the father of a 10-month-old boy, he’s concerned about the health of his family.
The day he ran out of masks, he got a call from Monica Edmonds from Vanguard Community Development Corporation. While the community development corporation is typically in the businesses of community and economic development the pandemic has created another way to serve the community: PPE distribution.
Last week, Vanguard started distributing 1,000 masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer to residents through the Gleaners Community Food Bank’s mobile pantry at Loving Academy as well as residents at three of its housing developments in an effort to help slow the spread of COVID-19 in the neighborhood. In the 48202 ZIP code, where North End is located, there are 319 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, according to city data.
The goal is to reach 1,000 people, Vanguard President and CEO Pamela Martin Turner says. They’ve been handing out five masks and pairs of gloves as well as sanitizer. “We know that that this is not a long-term solution because the gloves are disposable, so we are seeking funding now to continue this over the course of the pandemic,” she says.
Turner adds the impact of the novel coronavirus in Detroit has been tremendous. “I don't know anybody that doesn't know somebody [who’s been affected]. For us, it's not just a newspaper story that we read about … We know people in our churches and in our community and elders who are in nursing homes, people all over who have died. People are really afraid. It's a visceral type of fear more so than a theoretical fear. And so passing out the PPE, people are so happy. It's a small thing relatively … but it's a really necessary thing because this is a life or death situation for people.”
The idea to provide masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer arose after Vanguard had difficulty sourcing such items for public events. If an organization like Vanguard had difficulty finding necessary supplies to help people stay safe, residents must be facing even more challenges, they thought.
“The shelves were empty long before Governor Whitmer declared a state of emergency in Michigan,” Edmonds says. “We knew that our residents, many without transportation who rely on the local stores for essential goods, didn’t stand a chance of getting sanitizer, toilet paper, or masks. With the demand for PPE, and very few resources in our community, Vanguard, along with our community partners, began ordering supplies and identifying the safest ways to distribute.”
Edmonds then reached out to Bio Med Pharmacy, which donated 250 bottles of hand sanitizer.
She adds: “We really wanted to do something help stop the spread [of the coronavirus]. There are a lot of people without symptoms … that’s the frustrating part about this virus. [Asymptomatic people] don’t have ability to know [if they have it]. They haven’t been tested and don’t know they’re carrying it.”
Supported through grants from foundations such as the Kresge Foundation, Ballmer Group, and DTE Foundation, Vanguard purchased the masks and gloves to distribute to add to the donation from Bio Med.
The pandemic hasn't stopped Vanguard's main mission; Vanguard is still working “full steam ahead” on projects such as a comprehensive economic development plan and major housing development, Turner says.
COVID-19 has hit communities of color so hard because of “the conditions under which people live and work,” Turner says, conditions that make it difficult for people to socially distance effectively, which leaves them more susceptible to infection. “So the work that we do, our housing work is important and is critical. And it has an impact on the conditions that people live [in] so that they aren’t [as susceptible to infection] by providing safe, decent, appropriate housing. And the same thing with economic development work as it generates jobs that pay better and where people have more flexibility so that they can protect themselves physically in the middle of a pandemic. So while it seems you know, at first blush, our work [doesn’t seem] as immediately relevant, it really addresses the systemic problems that leave people more susceptible to infection.”
The organization is accepting donations through the fall to continue distributing masks. For more information, contact Monica Edmonds at [email protected] or leave a message at 313-462-4300.
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