Food Distribution in Westmont, Police Visit
An Update from the director of Transformations DCD
Working with local immigrant leadership, Transformations CDC met with police and the immigrant community over the summer and fall on the Basta! Project, aimed at preventing violence against immigrants in Price Hill. Several Basta! Meetings at St. Lawrence Square and later at the Autumn Woods apartments on Westmont enabled more conversation about the needs of our neighbors.
Food insecurity is a perennial issue for many low wage earners, especially if they are immigrants, because neither adults nor children qualify for SNAP, (food stamps). Because Westmont Drive, (off of Wyoming Avenue), is off the bus line, residents without cars often can’t get to local pantries if they are in need. Maybe another application of “Basta”, which means, “stop it, enough already”, could be to say NO to hunger.
Transformations CDC teamed up with the food ministry of the bilingual Episcopal church, The Church of Our Saviour/La Iglesia de Nuestro Salvador, to bring the food to Westmont, since residents couldn’t easily get to the pantry. A number of future leaders of the neighborhood, immigrant and US born, helped out the adults by organizing the food, passing out masks and helping people register.
Several kids from the church, who are also Hispanic and live in the neighborhood, as well as two other boys from the Learning Club, volunteered in the event, as did two adult Hispanic members of the church. It was a really successful day.
We were also fortunate to have Sergeant Hicks of District 3 come to the event to talk about recent arrest of a young man who confessed to 6 assaults/robberies of immigrants, as well as new and better security cameras in Westmont, etc.
Transformations CDC will continue to offer free food weekly at Westmont for residents who are low on food and struggle to get to the store without transportation.
Submitted by Nancy Sullivan, Transformations CDC Director. March 2021
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To learn more about the extraordinary work done by the Transformations Program, check out their Facebook page:
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