Dear Friends, It is an anxious time for all of us. As I write this, New York continues to be the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic despite having flattened the curve. There is no doubt that every one of us knows someone who has been impacted by the virus. We hope that you and those closest to you are safe. This pandemic has turned all of our lives upside down. But some segments of our society are bearing the brunt of the crisis much more than others. Hard data is shining a harsh light on how pervasive societal inequities are resulting in COVID-19’s having a disproportionate effect on the most vulnerable in our communities: they are most likely to die from the virus, lose their job or home. They are less likely to be able to work remotely. The mental health burden of the economic downturn is also distributed inequitably. We are seeing this in our school community. Frankly, with each passing week, the hardships our families face multiply. As recently as March 14, our Mayor acknowledged the place schools play in supporting vulnerable families. He explained what we at S2 already knew, that “families depend on schools, they need them.” Mayor De Blasio spoke about the critical role that schools play, beyond their primary function to educate children, in providing meals for students and child care for working parents, thrusting schools to the frontlines. The Mayor could have been talking about our school because for us these facts are personal. We know the people behind these statistics - they are the children and families we serve. When we made the decision to close our school because of COVID-19, we knew we had to roll out a strong and engaging online learning plan to continue to educate our students remotely. Equally important—dare I say, maybe even more important—we knew we had to be prepared to help our families deal with the many hardships they would be facing just to survive. I know that our primary role is educating children, but in unprecedented times like these, our children and their families cannot focus on learning unless and until they have adequate food and shelter. For this newsletter, I’d like to share what we are doing to address those needs in the stories and pictures that follow. Each morning our response team meets to discuss the non-academic issues our community faces. When we cannot provide direct support, we connect our families into the larger ecosystem of support services available in the community. We check-in with our families regularly by phone, e-mail, text and through surveys. We also have established a designated helpline for our parents to be able to privately communicate to us about their specific needs so that we can provide a myriad of rapid responses. As I said, every week our families are confronted with new needs and new problems: job loss, COVID-19 infection, trouble putting food on the table. We have added our alumni families and the families of newly accepted S2 students to our outreach, doubling the size of those we support to 600 families. The support we provide continues to evolve in response to what families reveal: providing weekly supermarket gift cards, partnering with Catholic Charities Food Drive, home food deliveries for those unable to leave the house, precooked meals to families of first responders. We are also helping families navigate the digital divide, helping them complete forms for food stamps, unemployment and other benefits. New this week, we have hired a truck to make designated stops throughout Washington Heights/Inwood providing our families with prepared breakfast and lunches to go. Finally, in addition to helping our students navigate this new and uncertain normal, our social-emotional team is working around the clock with individual families to ensure they make it through these troubling times. We have a four person team; in the past some might have thought that is a luxury for 300 children. Now we need them more than ever! We understand that densely populated immigrant neighborhoods will need our continued support well after we are allowed back outside. We are thoughtfully considering what our kids will show up with in their proverbial backpacks when allowed to return: how many will have suffered loss, how can we, yet again, help them feel safe, and what support will their families need? We know our work will look different and we are planning now for that eventuality. Your support has allowed us to make the challenges that our children and their families face during these troubling times a little more manageable. Thank you. We look forward to our continued collaboration. With Gratitude,

In a few short weeks we have ramped up our newly created Rapid Response Program to tier support based on what our families need. From grab and go meals distributed each day helping some make it through the week to home delivery of food and personal items for those most vulnerable. We are reaching hundreds of families a week.

Partnering with Catholic Charities

For our bi-monthly distribution with Catholic Charities, we received over 500 lbs of donated food. Consisting mostly of staples and canned goods, we supplement this with purchased items like ground meat, eggs, milk and other fresh groceries. For those who can't pick up, we deliver. At our April 27th distribution, 77 families received substantial supplies.

"In these difficult times, I am very grateful to School in the Square for always thinking about its students but also their families. This help is very much needed." - Kenia, S2 parent

Supporting Our Most Vulnerable

Uplift NYC is a not-for-profit organization providing the community with basic essentials. Each week they send five of our most vulnerable families, those who can't leave the house because of illness or otherwise, care packages with needed food and supplies.

When Ms. E, an S2 parent and mother of 4, received a delivery of groceries to her home, she was recovering from an illness as well as dealing with the death of a family member. Facing additional lost hours from work to care for her children as all schools closed they had to make hard choices. As a family, they experienced a variety of losses during this pandemic and turned to S2 for support. Knowing the limitations the family had to leave their home, S2 arranged for a food bag to be delivered.

"Thank you, thank you. This means so much to us. As soon as the groceries were delivered we began making sandwiches."

Grab and Go Program Meeting Daily Needs

Butter Beans, our in school meal providor, has gone mobile. They make three designated stops each day serving S2 families. Todays distribution provided 123 meals. As one S2 parent stated at pickup, "the kids are eating like crazy and the money is running out - thank you so much!"

Providing for First Reponders

Working with Yumble S2 has been able to deliver ready to go meals for 10 families of first responders.

While our work is well known and well-regarded by our stakeholders and supporters, the larger community is starting to notice us, too. We were recently featured in an article on the front page of the Manhattan Times, an important English/Spanish community newspaper serving all the neighborhoods of Upper Manhattan for the last two decades.

“I am also teaching remotely and it's very very hard. I commend your organization and hard work. And can't imagine a better school during this crisis." - Angie, 6th grade parent

Each day we are reminded that our efforts matter. Three 6th graders sent the following heartwarming message and pictures to our entire staff:

Good Morning Teachers and staff members, Renner, Geraldin and I (Gianna) want to thank you all for your hard work during these difficult times. As us students, in return, we want you guys to be happy and to be safe. You guys have done so much for us and we just want to say thank you!