The Greenwood Mentoring Group’s center on Avenue G has long been a place for local youth to get tutoring help as well as snacks. Now, with a few adjustments, the site continues to be a resource for youth during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“First of all, we understood that (the pandemic) was going to be something serious,” said Bill Clay, the group’s executive director.
Greenwood Leflore Hospital reported the county’s first case of the coronavirus March 13. The Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School District announced the following week that it would keep its schools shut by extending its spring break.
Because there are students within the school district who rely on receiving meals from their schools, Clay said that he and Linda Whittington, who writes grant applications and helps manage the mentoring group’s programs, realized the importance of the mentoring group continuing to give out snacks.
Since March 16, the group has given over 2,800 snacks, Clay said. The snacks are often food such as fruit, hamburgers from Drake’s BBQ or chicken sandwiches froom McDonald’s, along with water or juice, Whittington said.
Usually about 30 snacks are given out in a day, Whittington said. This week, however, they’ve been giving 40 snacks a day.
In fact, Clay said Thursday afternoon he was interrupted several times by children knocking on the center’s door to pick up snacks. “We were able to give to them, make sure they didn’t leave hungry,” he said.
“I think that the neighborhood in general appreciates when we stepped in and did that,” Whittington said.
The mentoring group has received donations throughout the community as well as from two nonprofits, the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi and the Mattox Foundation, Clay said.
“The community in general has been very generous, understanding that these kids are nutritionally challenged,” Whittington said. “We’re already having difficulties without the pandemic. The community has been very, very good to us.”
The mentoring group has also shifted its programs from in person to Zoom, the videoconference web tool that’s become widely used since the pandemic.
The transition to learning and teaching online “just brought a new dimension, a new platform of learning,” Clay said.
He added that it was important to comply with social distancing.
The mentoring group used Zoom for its summer enrichment program, which had 10 students enrolled.
Though using Zoom at first required a “learning curve,” Whittington said that it eventually worked well and that the flexibility with Zoom allowed her to schedule professionals throughout town to speak about their career to the kids by video chat.
Now the mentoring group is working on transitioning its after-school program online.
As of Thursday, Clay said 21 students had pre-registered for the after-school program
Whittington said she’s been working with some students by reading aloud together via Zoom.
Though the mentoring group has kept its building closed, aside from letting students pick up snacks, Clay said exceptions will be made for older students to use the building’s WiFi.
Clay added that the Greenwood Mentoring Group’s operations can’t continue without financial support from the community.
Donations to the Greenwood Mentoring Group may be mailed to 200 Ave. G or made via PayPal by using greenwoodmentoringgroup@yahoo.com as the address.
• Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
