what

Even in the best of times, many families are extremely high risk for issues that can negatively affect the ability of their children from succeeding in life such as high rates of generational poverty, lack of reliable transportation, low educational attainment, and high rates of federal benefits eligibility. These issues have been exacerbated by the introduction of COVID-19, causing profound negative economic impacts across SC. In March when schools and provider offices began to close, our staff rescheduled all student appointments and remained in close communication with local school districts and community partners to assist as needed with food distribution, medication delivery, urgent medical needs, and other hardships encountered by students due to school closings.

From March to July, our staff delivered over 100,000 meals and boxes of produce or canned goods. While the school year looked different in the fall, our mission remained the same. All program locations adapted their service delivery plans taking into consideration the unique learning environments and safety challenges in the area and Healthy Learners staff began to transport children from home as well as from school. We established safety policies to keep our staff and children safe including thermal temperature checks on Healthy Learners staff and students, hand and vehicle sanitizing, masks, minimizing physical contact and limiting unrelated students in the same vehicle for services. This global pandemic has made it clear- we are all connected to each other and will get through this together – with LOVE.