Church expands Food Share program to meet needs
Hoover turns buses into hotspots for online learning
Bham Family May 2020 27
BY JEANA DURST
Sometimes everyone needs a little help. In the
wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s clear that
many in our city were very close to being food
insecure, and the resulting loss of jobs has just
pushed that problem further into the spotlight.
With the help of the Community Food Bank
of Central Alabama, Trinity United Methodist
Church in Homewood has been serving families
in need through their Food Share program since
volunteers at the Trinity West Homewood
recently decided to expand their service. “COVID
19 has created a situation where other pantries
have had to close, so we decided to temporarily
eliminate our service area restrictions,” says
Kristan Walker, Director of Outreach for Trinity.
Now the program is open to those in need from
any part of town. Volunteers hand out food and
supplies—including meat, produce, dairy, baked
goods, and diapers. With more families in need,
Trinity is also in need of more volunteers to pack
up boxes. All packing is done with masks and
gloves, and volunteers pack while exercising a safe
social distance from one another. While Trinity
is normally a self-select food pantry, families
now drive through the church parking lot to
receive their food boxes during this time of social
households come and get food; we hadn’t seen that
many households since Christmas,” Walker says.
In addition, Trinity provides a bag of
shelf-stable food for food-insecure children at
Homewood and Hemphill schools through their
Weekenders program. Though schools have
closed, they are continuing to provide these bags
weekly at Homewood Middle School.
It’s more important than ever that we support
community food pantries and food share programs
like these—because of the coronavirus, some
wiggle room needed to survive, and others were
run exclusively by retired volunteers, who were
unable to continue to risk their health by being
exposed at this time. So, in effect, the number of
families in need is increasing while available help
has been limited. Walker reminds us that “the
distancing is lifted, adding that “we are prepared
to keep on keeping on.” You can help Trinity
Food Share program by volunteering to pack and
For more information, visit their Facebook page or
www.trinitybirmingham.com.
BY JEANA DURST
One of the most interesting things about
the coronavirus quarantine is realizing just how
much Internet connection is holding together our
modern lives—from doing our work, to learning,
to entertaining ourselves–and, of course, staying
connected with family and friends. For schools
who quickly had to pivot to online learning
instruction models, Internet connection was
essential to delivering instruction from a distance.
Imagine what this meant for Hoover City Schools,
one of our state’s largest systems with 18 schools
trouble accessing Internet at home.
Fortunately, the school system was prepared
to use the tools they already had in place. Eight
buses equipped with mobile Wi-Fi had been
in use transporting Hoover and Spain Park
High School students to the Riverchase Career
Connection Center (RC3), the district’s new
skilled trade academy that opened last August.
“We wanted to make sure they had connectivity
during that bus ride time as well so the buses
were equipped with Wi-Fi technology,” says Jason
Gaston, public relations director for the district.
Now these buses have new purpose as mobile
hotspots. “Our technology department came up
with the idea to roll those out as Wi-Fi hotspots
placed strategically across the city in areas where
we felt would have high student walkability,”
Gaston says. Students can walk up or drive with
their parents a few yards away from the bus and
complete assignments.
This is just one way we have seen ingenuity at
students right where they are with just what they
need.
/www.trinitybirmingham.com