Long lines of cars snaked along roads near Sussex Central High School in Georgetown April 24, waiting to get into the parking lot. There, volunteers, along with Delaware Army National Guard and state police, worked through a steady rain to load canned goods, milk, cereal, apples and other basics into each waiting car.
Thousands of people lining up for free food paints a dire picture of want.
As COVID-19 spreads through Sussex, its victims are not only those who fall ill, but also thousands of laid-off workers and their families.
With businesses shut down and most people ordered to stay home, hardworking citizens thrown off the job by the pandemic have run out of resources.
This week, Gov. John Carney also ordered everyone to wear a mask in public – immediately raising demand for cloth masks at a time when many of us can’t afford food.
The order states businesses must provide masks for employees and must deny entry to anyone who doesn’t have a mask and can’t be provided with one.
Grocery stores and pharmacies must also provide those without masks an alternate way to pick up what they need, but the call for masks means volunteers making them for hospital workers may now have an even larger task – making masks for stores so customers who don’t have them can still get in the door.
As restrictions mount, this virus not only claims lives. It gnaws at our confidence: in science to find a cure, in government to find a path forward, in our churches and houses of worship to restore our faith.
We are all on the front lines of this pandemic.
Our most powerful ammunition is to stay home, wear a mask when we go out, wash our hands and use technology to stay in touch.
We will get through this. Caring for each other and working together is our best path forward to survive isolation and end this pandemic.
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Editorials are considered and written by Cape Gazette Editorial Board members, including Publisher Chris Rausch, Editor Jen Ellingsworth, News Editor Nick Roth and reporters Ron MacArthur and Chris Flood.
