Shortly after the mid-March COVID-19 shutdown and stay-at-home orders, my friend reminded me of what Mister Rogers’ mother said to him during scary times, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
The friend is Sheli Massie, executive director of The Goldfinch Cafe, a pay-what-you-can restaurant that plans to open eventually in downtown Aurora. Massie has been dedicated to volunteering at Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry for the last several months, and since the drive-thru food pick-up started due to COVID-19 preventive measures, Massie has been at the frontlines filling the trunks of vehicles with boxes of canned food and bags of produce and breads.
Massie recruited me and another friend, Annie McWilliams, one of the owners of AKA Dance, to assist at the end of March. McWilliams and I were stationed outside of a large bay. Our task was to load milk and snacks into the carts, and get them in queue so they could be ready to load into cars.
I was impressed with how seamless the drive-thru worked. From 9 a.m. to noon on a Tuesday, Massie and other volunteers quickly loaded the cars. I would grab a cart from the building that had been pre-filled by dozens of volunteers with a box of canned goods, a bag of packaged meat, a bag of bread, and a bag of produce. Then McWilliams would add the milk and we took turns tossing in snack bags and other items such as prickly pear cactus or fresh flowers.
Then empty shopping carts would be pushed back to start the cycle again. We served just more than 200 cars that morning: Impressive for sure.
Almost a month later, April 16, Massie reported that they served more than 600 cars that day. That same day the Pantry’s executive director, Cat Battista, reached out to the community: Can you feed the 5,000?
Since then, the Food Pantry has held drive-thru donation drop-off days and Prisco’s Family Market is sponsoring a food drive to support the effort by selling $10 and $20 groceries bags for the Pantry.
As a thank you to Pantry staff members and volunteers, Dan Emerson from Gillerson’s Grubbery, and Florencio Gutierrez from Flo’s 2:AM Tacos showed up one day to feed them lunch.
Gillerson’s Grubbery continues to run a promotion that encourages community members to buy burgers for essential workers and volunteers. From these donations, Emerson already has served staff members at Prisco’s Family Market in Aurora, Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry, U.S. Postal workers, and others in need.
Through a Facebook campaign, Rebecca and Mark Walker, along with their three sons, of Aurora, helped to raise almost $2,000 for Hesed House by accepting challenges from their friends and family, such as doing a TikTok video and one son shaving his head.
Other community members are sewing masks, cooking meals for Wayside Cross residents in Aurora, putting hearts in their windows, and thanking essential workers.
April 25, the newly-formed Relief Coalition will hold Relief Aid: An online concert as a benefit for the Relief Coalition. Concert proceeds will be used to continue offering relief boxes to furloughed and unemployed hourly workers in partnership with Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry.
What’s becoming apparent during the COVID-19 crisis is that everyone’s efforts matter. Everyone can help in some way, and our community is proving that we are stronger together.
Marissa Amoni is the manager of Aurora Downtown, a nonprofit of business and property owners that serves Special Service Area #One in downtown Aurora. The public is invited to join Amoni and other downtown friends and family for Virtual First Fridays May 1. Auroradowntown.org.