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Illustration by Brobel Design

How St. Louisans have stepped up to help during the COVID-19 crisis

When coronavirus began to spread, these organizations and individuals provided support across a vast range of needs.

REMAINING UNITED

In normal times, the United Way of Greater St. Louis could expect to receive an average of 425 calls per week on its 2-1-1 hotline, which connects people to basic services such as childcare and counseling. Once the coronavirus crisis reached a boiling point, in early March, the number of calls skyrocketed to 7,000 over a three-day period. “We’ve been in this, helping to respond since Day 1 for our regional area,” says Michelle Tucker, president and CEO of United Way of Greater St. Louis. Not only has the 2-1-1 service functioned as a lifeline for those in urgent need of services such as food security, shelter resources, and counseling, but the United Way is also working to reduce strain imposed by bills that have suddenly become harder to pay. It’s partnered with utility companies Ameren and Spire to help customers who might be struggling with payments, offering credits and assistance to bring down the cost. In early April, the United Way also awarded grants totaling $205,000 to 11 local nonprofits. “We’re acting as an adviser and a supporter and just showing up in every way that we can to work together and respond to what the community is challenged by,” Tucker says.

HELPING THE HOMELESS POPULATION

Patrick Anderson, the women’s night program manager at St. Patrick Center, is worried about his clients. “The homeless population is an at-risk population,” he says. “I don’t think there’s anything that they’re not at risk for. Health issues, substance use, experiencing violence—everything goes up when you’re homeless. When you add in the pandemic, the impact on the homeless community is much greater than [for] folks who are housed, because they don’t have access to taking a shower or washing their hands.” The center used to serve 300 during lunch; since switching to a to-go sack lunch, it serves just 100 a day. “Clearly, folks aren’t getting some basic needs,” he says. Anderson’s night program serves 20 women dinner at the Shamrock Club. They then spend the night at the center, the only group to do so, normally. Now, he’s turned that program into a 24-hour service, trying to provide clients with necessities so they have no reason to leave the center. That includes food and access to showers and laundry. “We are trying to avoid, at all costs, discharging someone to the street,” he says. So far, they’ve been successful. Clients have left to stay with relatives and friends, not to stay on the streets. St. Patrick staff members—some from different programs—have picked up hours to help fill shifts. “It’s totally outside their purview and what they signed up for,” Anderson says. “That just shows the dedication to the clients. That’s why we’re all here.”

PROVIDING CARE

For Laura Weaver, COVID-19 is unchartered water. “It’s the first major crisis that I’ve worked through,” she says. “It’s the first major crisis that nurses who have been nursing for 30 years have worked through.” The nurse manager in the emergency department at SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital describes how her staff of 90 nurses, ER technicians, and paramedics have changed the way they care for patients: As soon as someone walks through the door, a nurse asks if he or she has a fever, shortness of breath, or flu-like symptoms, which might indicate COVID-19. If they do, they’re taken to a separate triage area. A tent set up outside the emergency department waits just in case the hospital becomes overwhelmed. Hospitalized patients are also no longer allowed visitors, meaning the nurses are the only physical support system they can rely on. It’s a lot to handle, especially with the sacrifices emergency department staff are making at home, too. Some have made alternative living arrangements to reduce the risk of passing along the coronavirus to their loved ones. But others don’t have that option. “I have a paramedic who works nights and is coming home, showering, and then getting the kids up and starting school,” Weaver says.

CRITICAL CARE

In March, as Mercy hospitals prepared for the onset of COVID-19, Dr. David Tannehill lost 12 pounds in three weeks. “I view that as a good thing,” jokes Tannehill, who serves as clinical director of critical care. His all-consuming goal: help about a dozen Mercy intensive care units across three states (Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma) acquire enough extra beds, equipment and know-how to handle a wave of severely ill patients. That task has Tannehill putting in 14-18 hour workdays. Afterward, he re-enters his home through the basement, bags up his clothes for an immediate wash, showers, engages with his wife and kids if possible, then tries to rest. But sleep eludes him. “That’s new for me,” notes Tannehill. “It’s hard to get the mind to stop.” For support and sometimes a reality check, he texts night and day with fellow intensivist Dr. Ashok Palagiri. The vice president of Mercy Virtual inpatient services, Palagiri lauds his friend for navigating the uncharted territory of this pandemic. “He’s not a 50-60-year-old doc who’s been doing this a while,” says Palagiri. “I’m sure the older docs are amazed at how strong a leader as he is.” Tannehill describes his state of mind as nervous but focused. “I’m fueled by caffeine and fear,” he says. “I just keep working.”

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

As president and CEO of the St. Louis Regional Business Council, Kathy Osborn sees many local companies and organizations hurting. She sees the layoffs and furloughs, the shuttered doors and uncertainty in the business community. But despite all the uncertainty, she also sees hope. “It’s a very, very painful experience,” Osborn says, “but at the same time, those same companies want to be as generous as they can.” She’s helping a consortium of local businesses to address the area’s most pressing needs—food, housing, utility relief, mental health services—and to reach out to vulnerable populations. The consortium has also worked to procure upward of 20,000 protective masks to distribute to nonprofits working on the front lines of the crisis. “This will not be an easy situation to resolve,” Osborn says, “but we are resilient people, and St. Louis is a very generous community.”

MEDICAL MATTERS

He’s planned for pandemics. When Dr. Alex Garza was the chief medical officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, it was his job to consider scenarios like the novel coronavirus. He led the country’s response to H1N1. It’s a career that would set most people’s nerves on edge, but luckily for St. Louis, he’s not scared. Garza, now chief medical officer for SSM Health, has taken on a second job: incident commander for the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force. Launched by St. Louis’ four major health care systems—BJC HealthCare, Mercy, SSM Health, and St. Luke’s Hospital—the task force allows hospitals to coordinate. Every afternoon, Garza leads a briefing, streamed live on Facebook, in which he presents—calmly—the number of people at those partner hospitals who have COVID-19, the number of ICU patients with the virus, and the number of those patients on ventilators. He recently delivered good news: St. Louis discharged 1,034 COVID-19 patients from area hospitals, and the virus’ reproduction factor—the number of people each COVID-19 patient infects—is thought to be very low. “It’s a direct reflection of the outstanding work and heroic commitment of thousands of health care workers in the region,” he says. “It’s also the result of our collective efforts.”

GIVING BACK

Boston Celtics star and St. Louis native Jayson Tatum has donated and delivered food to more than 500 area seniors through his Jayson Tatum Foundation. In early April, Tatum and another St. Louis native, the Washington Wizards’ Bradley Beal, partnered with Feeding America and Lineage Logistics to donate $250,000 each to Boston- and St. Louis–area food banks. “I always try to do what I can—in any way, shape, or form—to help out St. Louis,” says Tatum, “because St. Louis means the world to me.” Food insecurity is a major issue, and it’s even worse right now, he says: “People are told to stay in their house, not able to go to work, feeling the stress of bills and worrying about having enough money to get through this time. Food is essential. We’re trying to take a burden off people as much as we can.”

INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS

Nearly every day in February brought a new horror story to volunteers at the Chinese Education and Culture Center in St. Louis. As they led a fundraising drive to supply hospitals in Wuhan, China, with ventilators and medical supplies, they heard eyewitness accounts from the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak. There were stories of under-equipped hospitals, a health care system under severe strain, and, worst of all, doctors and nurses who’d gotten sick because they didn’t have the necessary personal protective equipment. For the volunteers, those frightening tales illustrated just how bad things could get once the virus reached the U.S. “Personally, I felt that we were not getting ahead of this thing and we were going to get our butts kicked,” says Min Liu, a volunteer outreach director for the center, “so we thought, OK, what can we do?” In March, they leaned on their connections in China to procure thousands of hospital-grade surgical masks, then partnered with the Chinese Service Center of St. Louis to donate them to BJC HealthCare, SSM Health, and Mercy, along with other agencies. They also delivered masks to first responders. “We’re playing a very small but important role,” Liu says. “Hopefully, we can remind people how vulnerable our health care system actually is.”

TO THE RESCUE

After two St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers who contracted COVID-19 were hospitalized, BackStoppers provided $10,000 each for medical bills and expenses. Likewise, the St. Louis Police Foundation donated $1,000 each to three city officers on ventilators, in addition to providing $300,000 in personal protective equipment and feeding 4,500 first responders a meal per week from area restaurants through mid-May. After providing temporary housing for health care providers, Washington University opened its doors to firefighters and police officers from St. Louis, Clayton, and University City. The Care Collective provided free mental health sessions to frontline workers. And in addition to donating meals, local restaurants showed their support in more creative ways; Hamburger Mary’s, for instance, raised more than $1,000 from a virtual drag show, with funds used to purchase gift cards to local restaurants for first responders.

SUPPORTING THE COMMUNITY

In March, The St. Louis Community Foundation began bringing together those who are able to give and those in need during the coronavirus crisis. “We’re committed to this region,” says Amelia Bond, president and CEO of the St. Louis Community Foundation. The foundation established two grant funds, the COVID-19 Regional Response Fund and the Gateway Resilience Fund, to aid area workers, businesses, and nonprofits. The former—created by a coalition of local foundations, businesses, and donors—was designed to quickly send aid to nonprofits whose work is directly affected by the pandemic, such as those addressing senior services, food insecurity, and childcare, among others. The latter was established after Andrew “Roo” Yawitz, owner of The Gramophone, approached the foundation about establishing a relief fund for area restaurants, bars, music venues, and retail shops. As of this writing, that fund has raised $639,771 for 862 workers and businesses. “I hate the reason, but I am incredibly happy that we’ve been able to establish this fund and get different community partners behind it,” Yawitz says.

A TIMELY RELEASE

Social distancing may not feel like a luxury, but consider those who don’t always have the option: inmates. A crowded prison or jail is an ideal breeding ground for aggressive pathogens such as coronavirus. This grim truth led state public defender Mary Fox and 34 other individuals and groups to send a letter on March 26 to the Missouri Supreme Court, asking for the statewide release of a variety of inmates, including those convicted of or awaiting trial on certain low-level, nonviolent, and probation-related offenses. The chief justice responded on March 30, reminding the lower court judges of their ability under recently changed rules to order such releases. Fox credits multiple jurisdictions in the St. Louis area for considering the issue on a case-by-case basis. She hopes the scrutiny continues even after the pandemic. “Way too many people are held when they haven’t been convicted of anything,” says Fox.

Responding to one of the most pressing needs during the pandemic, several area breweries and distilleries shifted production from beer and booze to hand sanitizer. It was a logical pivot for someone like 4 Hands Brewing Co. owner Kevin Lemp; most of the ingredients (alcohol, distilled water, hydrogen peroxide) were already on hand. All that was needed was glycerin or aloe. To date, 4 Hands, which also operates 1220 Artisan Spirits distillery, has produced thousands of gallons of its 4 Hands for Hands Cleaner. At STilL 630 Distillery, owner David Weglarz continues to produce and hand-deliver gallons of donated sanitizer to area hospitals. Square One Brewery & Distillery initially produced some sanitizer for giveaway, but those efforts have been stymied because of a national shortage of the sanitizer’s main ingredient, neutral grain spirits. Wellston-based Switchgrass Spirits, a worker-owned distillery that uses mostly local ingredients and products, has collaborated with another local company, Bee Naturals, to produce and distribute free hand sanitizer to senior centers, food banks, and first responders. And industry giant Anheuser-Busch, well known for sending cans of drinking water around the world in times of need, is using its supply and logistics network to produce 8-ounce bottles of hand sanitizer, working with the American Red Cross and other nonprofits to distribute them where they’re needed most.

CARING FOR CAREGIVERS

Shortly before the number of COVID-19 cases in the United States began to rise, Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer realized that childcare was going to be an issue, particularly for health care workers. But Bentzen-Mercer, executive vice president and chief administrative officer for Mercy, also knew that it’s scary to leave your kids with a stranger. A colleague noted that with schools closing, there might be teens and college students willing to help, and if they were a relative of an employee within the Mercy system, coworkers might feel more comfortable leaving children in their care. They launched a closed Facebook group, Care for the Caregiver, for Mercy workers who needed childcare and those willing to volunteer to connect. Within two hours, they had more than 1,000 members. Caregivers work for a modest $3 per hour to cover gas and expenses—but some do it for free. “We’ve had young adults who were offered money and they graciously turned it down,” Bentzen-Mercer says. “They want to give back to the community. I feel like we’re not only helping our caregivers and our coworkers deal with a real need so they can do their important work but we’re also giving these young people a real opportunity to make a difference.” The father of an 18-year-old with autism, for instance, needed someone to be there for his child while he worked; he found a match through Care for the Caregiver.

DIAPERS & DIGNITY

The St. Louis Area Diaper Bank typically distributes 200,000 diapers a month to families in need, but because of the coronavirus crisis, the organization now anticipates distributing closer to 500,000 diapers per month. “Thousands of families who have never experienced this kind of need are experiencing it now,” says Jessica Adams, founder of the bank, the only one in the city. To help meet that need, the organization is distributing 25 free emergency diapers for each family with a child present in a drive-thru service at St. Louis County Library’s four participating locations. Through Adams’ other organization, the St. Louis Alliance for Period Supplies, which works to end period poverty in the area, the locations are also providing period kits to those who need them. “Our mission is really to alleviate that stress that comes with not having access to the diapers that you need and to help strengthen the lives of families by making sure that we have this product that is essential for basic health and dignity,” Adams says. With libraries closed during the pandemic, Adams says the organization wanted to revamp their operations, so they teamed up with the library and Operation Food Search to make sure that diapers would be available once a week when food from Operation Food Search is also being distributed to families. “I think the most powerful takeaway for all of us on the team who have been doing the distributions is that this is clearly a need that causes great shame and fear in the people who are experiencing it,” Adams says. “We just want everyone to know that if you’re feeling that way, don’t. A lot of people are in the same boat, and we’re here for you.”

RESCUING PETS

Alfonzo, a caramel-brown mutt with fox-like features, is one of the success stories at Gateway Pet Guardians. When the group realized that it needed to shut down its shelter operations to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it put out the call to animal lovers to foster its strays and spend the stay-at-home period with a new friend. “We had hundreds of applications come in,” says Jill Henke, Gateway Pet Guardians’ development director. “Within the first week, we placed 55 pets. Now it’s over 100. We have a waiting list of people wanting to foster. It’s nice to be in a position to have a waiting list.” Alfonzo was one of the dogs that went out to foster—until the 9-year-old girl in his new family fell in love with him. Then he became a permanent addition. At Stray Rescue of St. Louis, executive director Cassady Caldwell knew that as soon as restaurants and other businesses started closing to prevent the spread of COVID-19, there would be a huge need for free pet supplies among people who’d lost their jobs. It’s better for the pet and the owner that the animal remain in the home, Caldwell reasoned, “especially when, if they’ve lost their job, they don’t want to have to lose their animal.” She picked up the phone and placed calls to her network of donors. “Before I knew it, I had hundreds of bags of food being delivered,” Caldwell says. Soon, the rescue was able to pivot and reopen as a pet food pantry that will stay in operation even after COVID-19. “The community stepped up,” she says. “They always step up.”

FINDING A NICHE

The same week that The North City Food Hub received its license to operate from the St. Louis Department of Health, the first presumptive positive case of COVID-19 was announced in St. Louis County. Founded by Gibron Jones of HOSCO Foods, the food hub is part of what will become the North City Food Cooperative, comprising commercial kitchen space for chefs and eventually a grocery store. In early March, Jones invited local chefs into its kitchen to cook for the community. Those chefs ended up mostly being from Niche Food Group, chef Gerard Craft’s restaurant group, which shut down all of its restaurants temporarily during the pandemic. Wearing face masks and gloves, with hand sanitizer stations nearby and hourly hand-washing breaks, the Niche team cooked lasagna, made sandwiches, and prepared other nourishing meals for students of St. Louis Public Schools and low-income senior citizens in area nursing homes. “When you have multiple organizations coming together to fulfill a need, I just think it’s beautiful,” Jones says. “It really speaks to what our city is: When something serious happens, people come together and rise to the occasion.”

WORKING TOWARD EQUITY

Schools are feeding students who can no longer come to their buildings. Libraries are distributing diapers and Wi-Fi hot spots. Doctors are venturing into encampments to care of unhoused people and educate them on staying safe. Jason Purnell, associate professor at The Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis and director of Health Equity Works, is leading a response team of more than 40 area nonprofits, optimizing efforts at providing basic resources in five counties during the pandemic. “There’s a need to share learning, to share resources, to coordinate as much as possible,” Purnell says. Pulling together disparate organizations with varying areas of expertise and experience is an ever-changing task, he explains. The team works to identify the most urgent needs, avoid duplicating efforts among those in the fight, and serve the whole region. “This virus does not respect the artificial boundaries that we’ve set up between subdivisions or jurisdictions,” Purnell says. “The virus doesn’t stop at Skinker; it doesn’t stop because the Mississippi or Missouri River is there.” The task is monumental, and Purnell is effusive in praising the organizations, individuals, and staff who support the efforts. “We need to pull together in real time to solve real issues,” he says.

RESTAURANT RALLIES

In March, three restaurant partners rallied to raise money for those affected while feeding people in need. Sugarfire Smoke House and Hi-Pointe Drive-In co-owners Mike Johnson and Charlie Downs, working alongside Chicken Out business partner Ben Hillman, dished out 500 sandwiches and soup from a mobile trailer on the Sugarfire Olivette lot, using a pay-what-you-can model. The next weekend, the trio moved to The Boathouse in Forest Park. The events raised $20,000 for the Gateway Resilience Fund. “St. Louis has always been good to us,” says Johnson, “so we want to do good for St. Louis.” A few weeks later, guests received curbside food paired with a drive-thru peek at City Foundry STL. That day, developer Steve Smith matched the first $25,000 in donations.  

WORKING TOWARD A TREATMENT

At the end of February, Arturo Casadevall of Johns Hopkins approached Washington University School of Medicine’s Dr. Jeffrey Henderson with a century-old idea, used during the flu pandemic of 1918: the isolation and transfusion of antibodies from the blood of people who’ve recovered from COVID-19 into those who are ill. “The big advantage here is, we could use this quickly,” he says. Michael Joyner of the Mayo Clinic joined the effort, and the experts and their institutions began encouraging consideration of the practice nationwide. At the end of March, the FDA announced that it had approved the investigational use of plasma to treat COVID-19 patients. “Once we got over that barrier, the next big job is to generate a supply of plasma,” Henderson says. “That requires public involvement, people who are fortunate enough to have recovered from the infection to then turn around and donate their plasma.” At press time, Henderson and a team at Washington University were talking with experts across the nation as they worked to make it possible for people to donate and conduct clinical trials. “The willingness of people who’ve recovered to donate is really a lovely gesture,” Henderson says. “I’ve heard a lot more positive responses, a lot more willingness to do that than I anticipated.” He adds that it’s a “stopgap measure until a vaccine becomes available or until we identify a drug that is useful.”

TAKING STOCK

During the pandemic, the grocery industry’s role as an essential service has become abundantly clear. “We can’t survive without this group of workers,” says David Cook, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655. Many of those workers are clocking more hours than ever, despite being “frightened beyond words,” he says. “Every one of these workers is coming in contact with a minimum of 1,000 people in the public every day they go to work.” Yet the area’s three major local grocers—Schnucks, Dierbergs, and Straub’s—had the best attendance in recent memory for scheduled shifts, he says. “People were committed to coming in and serving the public.” The union’s been working closely with area grocers to look out for those workers, with Dierbergs and Straub’s offering $2 more per hour and Schnucks giving full-time employees a $500 bonus. The union also worked to waive co-pays for coronavirus testing, maintain pay for those who get sick, and expand access to telemedicine at no out-of-pocket expense. “We have really worked collaboratively,” Cook says. “Truly, everybody’s interest is how we can serve the public.”

FEEDING A NEED

In the days after COVID-19 hit the St. Louis region, chef Rex Hale grew concerned about how the pandemic would hurt those who are already the most vulnerable in our community: the home- and food-insecure. Feeling a call to help, Hale has been preparing food out of STL Foodworks, the commercial kitchen in the Central West End owned by Christy and Charlie Schlafly of Ford Hotel Supply, since early March. Most of the food is distributed through STL Foodworks, and the facility is receiving staggering volumes of donated meat, produce, dairy products, and shelf-stable items from farmers and food producers across the region. American Pasture Pork, for example, has donated $750,000 of meat so far; Cisco has offered up $80,000 in product. Smaller operations, including Rain Crow Ranch, Double Star Farms and The Mill at Janie’s Farm, are contributing as well. Hale is working with such food pantries as Operation Food Search and shelters, including Peter & Paul Community Services, plus a slew of charities and churches, cooking alongside a team of volunteers six or seven days a week to make it happen. “When you get to do what you love to do, it’s not even work,” Hale says. “And who doesn’t need food? We all gotta eat, right? It’s real simple.”

SERVING THE UNDERSERVED

ArchCity Defenders launched a petition calling for public health policies that accommodate the working poor, unhoused, and disabled, among others. It also teamed up with WEPOWER and the Clark-Fox Family Foundation to build an online resource page.

In partnership with the St. Louis American and Action STL, ArchCity set up stlcovidhub.org, a website that lets you sign petitions and monitor which demands have been met.

Lastly, the nonprofit filed litigation aimed at releasing pretrial detainees.

“In this moment of all moments,” says ArchCity’s executive director Blake Strode, “it’s critical that no one be unlawfully detained because they can’t afford bail.”

PROMOTING HEALTH

As they watched the COVID-19 pandemic gradually encroach upon the state, officials at the Missouri Foundation for Health knew that they needed to react quickly. Their usual focus on promoting health, especially for those with the fewest resources, put them in a unique position to help tackle issues prompted by the coronavirus crisis. “We know that this pandemic affects virtually everybody,” says Bob Hughes, the foundation’s president and CEO. “We’re not sure how devastating it’s going to be, but we already know it has significant consequences both directly and indirectly on long-term economic and mental health issues, so we’ve been diving into it as much as we can.” The foundation immediately pledged $15 million to COVID-19–related health and infection control efforts across the state, with an initial $7 million going to federally qualified health centers and community mental health centers across Missouri. The foundation also partnered with the St. Louis Regional Chamber and area food banks, including the St. Louis Area Foodbank and Operation Food Search, to bolster the area’s food safety net. “There’s been a tremendous amount of cooperation with organizations who are willing to help each other and find new ways to solve problems in very practical ways, very quickly,” Hughes says.

MAKING MASKS

After seeing a Facebook post about Seattle hospitals’ calling for makers to create masks for the medical community, Project Runway alumnus and Saint Louis Fashion Fund designer-in-residence Michael Drummond wondered, Is it true? Is that what it’s come to? He did a little research and realized that as a designer, he had a lot of material, so he started a Facebook group for anyone who wanted to join him in creating masks for local medical personnel. More than 300 people joined in about two days.

“It was very obvious that there was a movement and people wanted to help,” says Drummond.

Now he and a team of seamstresses, designers, and patternmakers, dubbed STL Makers Unite for Medical Masks, are cutting and sewing masks in their homes. After trial and error, Drummond consulted with St. Luke’s Hospital anesthesiologist Dr. Kumiko T. Shimoda on a prototype.

“I wanted to make sure that this is something that can be usable, because the road to hell is paved with good intentions,” Drummond says. “The last thing you want to do is inundate hospitals with boxes and boxes of things they can’t use.”

Carr Textile donated fabric to the initiative and Michelle Trulaske, a Fund supporter, gave $70,000, allowing Drummond to pay the workers wages. The masks, made from a cotton blend with a water- and stain-repellent finish on the shell and lined with a sport fabric, reduces the number of particles reaching the wearer’s respiratory tract. The goal: 14,000 masks in 45 days.

“I’m really proud of everyone that’s working on this initiative,” he says. “People are really coming together—not just this team but people in general. It’s a weird feeling to be separated, but it feels like such a sense of community.”

“We all know the financial reality of being an artist,” says Jeremy Goldmeier. “People talk about the gig economy like it’s a new thing. That’s the life of an artist.” Goldmeier, along with his husband, Kyle Kratky, and their friend Jessica Pautler, founded the St. Louis COVID-19 Artist Relief Fund on March 14 after seeing friends and colleagues lose much of their livelihoods as social distancing led to the cancellation of event after event. All three have worked in some facet of the arts in St. Louis, so their personal networks were hit hard. A similar fund in pandemic hotbed Seattle inspired them. So far, St. Louis has been eager to give—by early April, the trio had raised close to $9,000, in $5 dribs and $350 drabs. To apply for a grant, artists undertake a two-tiered application process. First, they complete a questionnaire about their work, event cancellations, and financial need. Then the trio triage the requests, giving priority to the most urgent cases. They’re mostly funding in the $150 to $500 range. “There are folks who are supporting themselves and helping support a family,” Goldmeier says. “Artists help drive not just our local culture but also our local economy.” Two other arts organizations are helping those in need. The Regional Arts Commission is accepting applications for $500 and $1,000 grants. The Luminary, meanwhile, is asking a thought-provoking question: How do you envision the future if you can’t survive the present? In that spirit, it’s partnering with the Andy Warhol Foundation to give out $60,000 in $1,000 grants to artists and arts organizers whose work has been affected by the pandemic.

LOOKING OUT FOR STUDENTS

Remote learning is great, but not if you don’t have internet—or a full belly. The St. Louis Public Schools Foundation has stepped in to help fill some of the gaps for SLPS students who have to stay away during the pandemic. Jane Donahue, president and CEO of the SLPS Foundation, says she works with an incredible array of heroes. “I know I’m working with a group of people who are trying do to well by students, but we are working in a system that’s got a lot of potholes,” Donahue says. Of the 21,000 students served by the district, Donahue says, about 80 percent are living in poverty, with many depending on school meals. Forty percent didn’t have devices needed for online learning. “The pandemic has really shone a bright light on the inequities that exist, specifically around food security and the digital divide,” she says. The foundation has assisted in getting tablets, Wi-Fi hot spots, and meals to students and their families. It’s also been recognizing staff excellence in the form of SLPS Foundation All-Stars, nominated by their peers for excellence in supporting students. It’s not an easy time, Donahue allows, but, she says: “This is a time of grace and patience.”

FEEDING FAMILIES

Tai Davis did not set out to create a movement when he started boxing up lunches for kids this past March. He just knew there was a need, and he had the time and the skills to fill it. A few weeks and more than a thousand meal kits later, it was clear that the rising star chef’s program for feeding hungry kids, St. Louis Boxed Lunches, has become a lifeline for families struggling to figure out where their next meal will come from in the absence of school lunches. As someone who participated in Missouri’s Free and Reduced Program when he was growing up, Davis understands what it is like to count on school as a source of nourishment. When he heard that public schools were closing in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, his thoughts immediately turned to those who would be losing this vital food source and how he could help. Reaching out through social media, Davis assembled a small team of volunteers and collected donations from local food vendors that have allowed him to create meal kits for hungry families in the St. Louis metro area. Each kit, containing provisions for five days’ worth of meals, is available at two hubs, Old North Provisions in North City and Local Harvest in South City. Davis and his team will also deliver them to households in need—whatever it takes to make sure he’s feeding people as well as he can.

LOOKING OUT FOR NEIGHBORS

“What is happening with the populations who shouldn’t be leaving their houses?” That’s the question that Dessa Somerside posed to a Facebook group of moms in Maplewood and Richmond Heights in mid-March. The group had been talking about how to help kids who would no longer be eating lunch at school because of the pandemic, and Somerside wanted to gauge interest in setting up ways to help the most vulnerable people in the neighborhood. The result is MapleGOOD, a group of around 300 volunteers, mostly women ages 35–44, who deliver groceries and medicine to people who shouldn’t be leaving their houses. Somerside says many of the calls have been from people who can’t afford groceries and medicine because they’re out of work. MapleGOOD has used some of its donations to buy those items and has referred people to food pantries and other resources in the area. In one instance, it helped a woman afford a six-week supply of medicine that she needed to tide her over until her doctor’s office reopens. The group is also connecting people to organizations and services in the region that can provide help longer term. “This is an example of what people can do in their own neighborhoods,” Somerside says. “This took a day to organize. Anybody can do it—reach out to a neighbor. It doesn’t have to be a huge operation.”

SURROUND SOUND

After seeing his friends’ music gigs evaporate, Native Sound recording studio co-owner Ben Majchrzak created the St. Louis Arts and Music Fund. He started with a Facebook message to about 150 people, and the idea took off. “There was this massive outpouring of support,” he says. “I think in the first two days we had almost 2,000 shares of the page.” Once there was $5,000 in the kitty, he started handing out grants on a first-come, first-served basis, most at the maximum level of $250. Beyond the online donations, the fund is raising cash in some novel ways. Musicians have played a few virtual concerts for free while welcoming donations. Majchrzak says he’s thrilled to have people pitching in from all sides. “My hope,” he says, “is that after we get out of it and everyone starts to recover, we’re able to continue this sense of community.”

KEEPING THE WATER FLOWING

Wash your hands. It may seem like a straightforward mandate during a pandemic, repeated on kids’ shows, hospital PSAs, nearly everywhere you turn. But for millions of Americans, access to water isn’t always a given. A survey from Food & Water Watch found that the water was shut off for an estimated 15 million people in 2016. So in mid-March, when Ramiz Hakim and his colleagues at North Star Insurance Advisors, learned that the city of Troy, Missouri, was preparing to do its routine monthly disconnections for unpaid bills, just as COVID-19 was beginning to affect the region, the company decided to pay those bills. (The city later decided to temporarily suspend water disconnections for unpaid bills.) When word got out that North Star had covered the bills, the company received an outpouring of gratitude. “Our core values dictate that we are one team and one family,” says Hakim, who notes the gratitude should be directed toward his colleagues, who care so deeply about the community—for instance, the single mother who puts in extra hours to ensure that customers’ needs are met. “We have not laid off one person,” he adds, “and we are still hiring.”

RETAIL SUPPORT

After stores closed their doors to help prevent the spread of coronavirus, four business owners banded together. #314Together, launched by Route’s Christina Weaver, consultant Meg Smidt, Red Lettered Goods’ Megan Rohall, and Hello Juice & Smoothie’s Jordan Bauer encourages local business owners to use the hashtag and a corresponding Facebook group to share how they’re trying to connect with customers during the COVID-19 crisis. At press time, the Facebook group had more than 12,000 members. Other retail spaces are finding ways to give back as well. RF Home Co. by Rescued Furnishings has served as a donation drop-off site for hospitals and nursing homes. In April, Fashion Group International–St. Louis and the Saint Louis Fashion Fund launched the #314Fashion movement to raise awareness of St. Louis’ hurting fashion industry and sold T-shirts with 50 percent of the proceeds going to the Gateway Resilience Fund.

PRODUCTS & PROCEEDS

Even though many local businesses are hurting, some are choosing to give portions of their proceeds to larger causes. Arch Apparel, the St. Louis–themed brand, has been selling masks and donating a portion of profits to the Gateway Resilience Fund and fundraiser Lunches for Clinicians STL, which provides meals for health care workers. For every one of Daily Disco's masks purchased, the boutique donates one to a front-line worker. Apparel company Series Six debuted a Restaurant Series of T-shirts with Left Hand Promotional with 100 percent of proceeds going to Lunches for Clinicians STL. Cheree Berry Paper offered Neighborly Notes, cute fill-in-the-blank door hangers, as a project for kids and parents to stay connected with their community—and 25 percent of proceeds are donated to the St. Louis Area Foodbank. Jewelry maker Collections by Joya sold 314 Local Love boxes, filled with goodies from local makers and retailers, with all proceeds going to the Gateway Resilience Fund.

GIVING GRACE

On the brink of tears, Grace Meat + Three co-owner Elisa Lewis explained, “Grace is a courteous goodwill, a free gift that is undeserved. We are not willing to give up, and we believe that this is worth fighting for.” In the video in which she delivered those words, posted to Facebook on March 17, Lewis and her husband, Rick Lewis, announced that they would no longer be taking salaries at their restaurant. Their staff would have to take a pay cut, but these measures would allow the restaurant to continue operating and keep the team employed. Orders would be placed over the phone and picked up at the onsite carryout window. The couple committed to donating 15 percent of their Grace Gives Plates to furloughed bartenders, servers, and cooks in the area, as well as to providing free meals daily through another special, Giving Grace, funded by public donations and available to anyone in need. As of this writing, more than 300 free meals have been distributed, and the couple is now partnering with SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital and the St. Louis Hero Network to offer meals to children seeking treatment and to their families, as well as to first responders.

PROVIDING PATIENT CARE

On Sunday, March 15, inside the boardroom of Memorial Hospital East in Shiloh, Illinois, the facility’s president, Mike McManus, sat next to nurse Terri Halloran, the patient care director, with a big ask in mind: He wanted her to run point on the COVID-19 response. But he didn’t have to ask. Halloran offered to do it. “She’s been going full-tilt,” says McManus. “She’s easily been putting in the most hours.” Drawing on decades of experience, Halloran now spends her days, nights and weekends ensuring, among other things, that colleagues at both Memorial East and Memorial Hospital Belleville are wearing personal protective equipment correctly and sparingly—not an easy task when staff anxiety is high. “I’ve come to appreciate that no matter how many facts you have, if people are consumed with fear and anxiety, they can’t hear it,” says Halloran. “So we need to give people time and support to work through their own emotions.” She heaps praise on her fellow nurses and the staff of the emergency department and intensive care units. “That’s who I would want taking care of me if I were sick,” she says. She’s also leading by example, McManus observes. On a recent weekend, for example, Halloran assumed the tedious task of counting items in the PPE inventory. Concludes McManus: “She doesn’t ask anybody to do anything she wouldn’t do herself.”

Visit stlmag.com for more stories about St. Louisans helping others during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then look for an in-depth feature on health care workers, including Dr. David Tannehill and nurse Terri Halloran, in the August issue.