2021.03.14 | Daylighting Disparities
“Daylighting Disparities”
Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring, Senior Minister
Eden United Church of Christ
Hayward, CA 94541
Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 14, 2021
This past Thursday, March 11, marked the one year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic. Usually anniversaries are occasions for celebration, but in this case--not so much. So many lives lost. So many jobs, so many businesses, and so many in-persons lessons lost. There is so much to grieve. Some of us will be grieving these losses the rest of our lives.
And yet, the news is not all bad. There is good news, too. Lessons have been learned, vaccines have been discovered, alliances and partnerships that never existed have been forged, and some archaic systems that have needed to die for a very long time have finally imploded under the stress of the pandemic.
So we have been and we are tossed to and fro during this pandemic like sailors on the high seas in the midst of a hurricane. We are tossed from one side of the ship to another, so we reach for something to grab hold of and we hang on for dear life.
The same is true within the realm of public health. On the one hand, the most vulnerable among us have taken a beating by this virus and its economic impact, and on the other, a bright light has been shown on the least, the last, and the lost. So that no one can deny any longer the suffering of those who are now named “the especially vulnerable:” our frail elders, people of color, kids in cages, refugees and aliens, economic migrants, asylum seekers, people with multiple morbidity issues, and individuals and families with low social and economic status.
These health disparities which are also economic disparities and racial-ethnic disparities have been daylighted, and even the privileged are coming to terms with the news that none of us is safe from COVID-19 unless all of us are safe from this disease and its variants.
II
Some examples of how the disparities in our community have been daylighted follow.
About 2-3 weeks after the pandemic unfurled last year, I received a call from Dr. Wayne, the Superintendent of the Hayward Unified School District. He asked me how things were going. “Not so great,” I replied. “The WHO just declared a pandemic.” Of course, we both knew that. I wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t know. And I wasn’t going to pretend like everything was fine, when it wasn’t.
He was sweet to call. He said that he was calling around to different school communities in the District and was wanting to share what supports that the District was preparing to offer our students and their families, and the teachers and staff at our school sites.
He told me about the drive-thru breakfasts and lunches that would soon be available, and he explained that families would be able to come once a week or so and get grocery boxes at the drive thru too.
He also explained that the District was applying for a big federal grant and hoping to buy enough ChromeBooks to provide every child in the district, so that they could keep up with their studies using distance learning technologies.
That’s great news, Dr. Wayne. I appreciate your call and everything that you’re trying to do for our children. But I think there’s something you should know.
“What’s that?” he asked.
The WiFi connectivity in Cherryland is terrible. You can provide every student with a ChromeBook, the best teacher in the world, and all the tech tips that anyone could possess, but if students can’t get a strong enough WiFi signal, and connect to their class, their ChromeBook won’t offer much help in their learning process.
The Superintendent hadn’t thought of that. He didn’t know. All of that stuff works in his office, and his neighborhood, and at his home.
The Superintendent had no idea, until I told him, and bless his heart, he redoubled his commitment to obtaining funding and securing a gazillion hot spots that HUSD families could sign out from their children’s school sites. And things have gotten better.
Before we hung up, I explained to the Sup that there were a couple of other problems that he might not know about. “What are those?” he asked. Pretty much everyone in Cherryland is out of a job. Most people live hand to mouth. Some may have enough savings to cover a month’s rent, but nobody’s got too month’s rent hidden in their mattress. The economic impact of the pandemic is probably going to hit Cherryland harder than the public health crisis.
Oh, and most of our families don’t qualify for public assistance, because most of our families are economic migrants or asylum seekers who are lightyears from obtaining Social Security numbers so that they could even enroll in public benefits, if their pride doesn’t keep them from doing that. So whenever the bottom stops drops out from under us here in Cherryland, we’re going to have quite a hole to climb out of.
III
God knows, Eden Church is just one church. We can’t solve all of these challenges, not for Cherryland alone, much less the whole school district, the wider community, or the world. But don’t allow the magnitude of the challenge to deter us from trying to do what we can with what we have where we are. Since this is the one year anniversary of the pandemic, I’ll share a quick summary of how we have tried to light some candles in the midst of these dark times.
Shortly after the pandemic unfurled we learned that there were a growing number of Unaccompanied Immigrant Youth (UIYs), aka “Kids Who’ve Lived In Cages,” in our school community who didn’t have anything to eat. School was closed so they weren’t able to benefit from free breakfasts and free lunches. They couldn’t go to their low wage jobs, and earn money to buy their own food, and even if they could, all the restaurants were closed. So we recruited a half-dozen mothers from Mexico and Central America, and invited them to come to the Church and start cooking meals using the groceries that we were able to gather from the Alameda County Community Food Bank. We called that pop-up ministry, “Cena Caliente,” or “Hot Meals.” We cooked the food at church and then door-dashed it to school drop-off and pick up locations, to homes and apartments where students were renting a cot or a couch.
From lessons learned by creating Cena Caliente, we scaled up and built out a plan to provide CI/CT, Outreach and Education, and Quarantine and Isolation Supports for individuals and families who were quarantining or isolating due to exposure to the virus or being sick with the virus. Through our partnership with Alameda County Healthcare Services, and other local partners, we have been door-dashing to clients, who have been identified through the Public Health testing and resulting processes, hot meals prepared by small businesses in Cherryland, groceries provided by the USDA and ACCFB, and products that we have purchased to fulfill these contracts.
Through data gathered by and disseminated through the WHO, CDC, CDPH, and ACPH, we were able to confirm what we already knew--immigrants and mixed-status families in our community were especially vulnerable to COVID-19--so we need to assemble the best defense and the best offense available to combat the virus.
Our CI/CT reached out to those who tested positive for the virus, and helped them identify close contacts so that we could encourage testing, and door dash supports to make it easier to stay safer and healthier, even though many of our neighbors live in very close quarters and are front line agricultural, food service, janitorial, childcare, and healthcare providers.
Testing for every demographic group has needed to be provided conveniently, hospitably, and economically. In Cherryland that has resulted in Eden Church hosting free COVID-19 testing in partnership with Alameda County Public Health, and La Familia Counseling Services.
IV
A similar approach that is linguistically and culturally competent has been needed on the prevention side of COVID-19. That is why we have partnered with ACPH, La Familia, and Tiburcio Vasquez to provide outreach and education, and navigation services to walk-up vaccine clinics in South Hayward and Oakland for the most vulnerable in our community. This is also why we are collaborating with these and other partners to bring a vaccine pod to the old Sunset High School campus, and to host pop-up vaccine clinics in our parking lot on upcoming Saturdays.
So those are some examples of how we’ve tried to light some candles to promote health and healing in our community during the dark days of the pandemic. We have also tried to ameliorate some of the economic damage that has resulted from the pandemic by daylighting the causes of the economic disparities in our midst, advocating for rent relief, and collaborating with local partners to create more affordable housing in our community.
Just last week, for example, Centro Legal approached and asked us for help assisting them in operationalizing the Alameda County Board of Supervisors new $65M rent relief program. (Centro Legal is one of the Bay Area legal aid organizations with whom we have worked for more than 20 years.) Specifically, they asked us to help their clients complete applications for rent relief, and reach out to landlords and provide coaching about how both parties could benefit from this program. In less than 1 week, Eden Church will finalize an MOU with Cento Legal, and reassign, train, and activate 10 of our employees to serve in this way.
V
This morning, as we enter the second year of this pandemic, I think it has been important for us to pause, look back, and note some of the ways that we have, as a whole organization, tried to light candles in the darkness of this pandemic. It’s also important to acknowledge the ways that each of us has contributed to this process through our prayers, our volunteer services, and our financial gifts; through raising the profile of the church and its ministries, and by helping to raise greater awareness of the disparities and needs, raising more friends to support our ministries, and to identify more resources for the dismantling of the systems that promote the disparities that have led to these despicable situations--and more. To you. To each and everyone of you, thank you, and God bless you! Amen.