These past 15 months, no matter how “hard” or “easy” any of us had it, we’ve learned a lot. Good stuff even. Our learning, you could say, has been one of the pandemic’s silver linings. To acknowledge some of those Silver Learnings, we’ve invited friends from different walks of life to share what they’ve learned from the pandemic. Our guess is you’ll hear some voices that sound like your own, and some that offer a window into a world you’ve not known but from which we can all now learn.

Molly Rodriguez has been a licensed clinical social worker since 1990, operating a private practice out of her home in Dobbs Ferry. She now works in the field of immigration, helping undocumented immigrants become permanent residents of the United States. She was also the Director of the Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry at South Presbyterian Church from 2011 until this past April, which was a rewarding, heartwarming (but exhausting) experience. Molly writes …

The Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry has been serving 30-40 families a week, serving Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley, Irvington and Greenburgh, New York, since 2011. I’ve been very happily running the pantry since then. When the pandemic began, our numbers exploded. A couple of weeks ago we served 175 families, a 425% increase. Running the pantry has turned into a full-time job.

Half of America is vaccinated. Things can now get a whole lot better.

After 15 months, however, we’re all wounded. 33 million of us caught Covid-19. Nearly 600,000 of us died from it. We’ve lost people we love. We’ve also lost jobs, savings, emotional and physical well-being, and more.

Hopefully, the time has finally arrived to rebuild.

The Jonah Maccabee Foundation would like to help with that.

There are only a couple of days left to our Beat the Virus campaign. We’re going to keep helping food pantries to stock their shelves, so if you haven’t yet made your gift, please know it’ll be put to good use.

The coronavirus is everywhere, and lives throughout our nation have been upended. Because of you, we’ve been able to make these 8 grants:

Our Beat the Virus campaign has touched a lot of lives. We’ve provided somewhere in the vicinity of 2500 meals which seems like a lot of families, doesn’t it? In truth, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to how many families are in need of help while weathering the coronavirus. With about ten days remaining in our winter campaign, we’re hoping that, if you are able, you’ll donate generously. We’re going to send grants to as many states across America as we can.

We’ve had a phenomenal first week for the campaign. More than seventy donations have come in, which is not only heartwarming for our family but is also going to help our team (that’s you and us together) do some real good out there for folks who are struggling to get through the pandemic.

We’ve already made these two grants:

• The Pico Union Project in Los Angeles, which is distributing free fresh produce, children’s books and household supplies every week to 2000 neighborhood families in the area known as El Pueblo de Los Ángeles.
• Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, whose mission is, “We exist simply because people in our community struggle with meeting a basic human need—having enough to eat.” During the pandemic, that need has increased exponentially.

Because of your generosity, we’re able (that’s you and us together!) to award these grants and assist some very wonderful community organizations in their vital work.

Won’t you please make a generous donation to our Beat the Virus Fund so we can help families across the country make it through the pandemic? We’ll identify local food pantries and other community services, providing grants to help assist folks who need a helping hand.

Thank you.