Glenolden resident announces Sunday soup giveaway
GLENOLDEN » Maureen Carreño of Glenolden regularly feeds the homeless by cooking about
250 hot meals and distributing about 250 lunch bags, prepared by her friends. Lately, with COVID-19, she switched to doing solely lunch bags instead of sitdown meals. According to Carreño, in the past several weeks, shelters are full, public transportation stations like 69th Street are closed off and drug use has gone up.
Carreño said she feels fortunate to still be working at one of her two jobs after seeing so many out of work. She said she also feels blessed because she received her stimulus check. The generous local resident says she wanted to share what she had so she decided to start making soup in mass quantities.
Carreño posted on Facebook last week that she was having a free contactless soup giveaway for anyone in need. She made
32 containers and held a safe, socially-distanced soup driveby/walk-by by setting the soup on tables outside.
“Since it worked out, I will do it again next weekend,” Carreño stated. “There is never any judgement. Maybe you need it, maybe you just like soup, maybe it makes you smile, maybe you want to share with an elderly neighbor, maybe you were laid off - it doesn’t matter. I invite everyone to grab a soup! It’s my gift to anyone who wants it.”
If anyone is having trouble getting food and would enjoy the soup, weather permitting, she invites them to stop by 104 N. Llanwellyn Ave., Glenolden, at 4 p.m. every Sunday to pick it up, while quantities last.
For more information about the soup giveaway, the soup recipes, and to find out what kinds of soup will be available on Sunday, follow the Facebook page “SouperMumMum.”
Ridley Park resident works 16-hour days to make masks for anyone in need
RIDLEY PARK » Renee Dennis of Ridley Park wanted to help the community in some way during the pandemic. The married mother of three children teaches dance and is the assistant director, educator and the costume mistress of Philadelphia Studio Ballet in Haverford. When her teaching schedule was cut from
20 hours a week to 5 hours online, due to the governor’s nonessential business closure orders, she began to make masks.
“I had tons of fabrics and remnants from the last 20 years of my life so by dinner time the day they issued the recommendation to wear masks, I had made every person in my family a mask as well as every neighbor I knew,” the native of Houston, Texas, who now makes her home in Delco, explained. “The next day I had over
20 orders for masks.”
Her orders kept getting larger. She soon was making masks for not only her neighbors and friends, but for their families and friends, and the families and friends of their families and friends and so on, as well as many nurses.
“The thought of people waiting for me to finish their masks so they can leave the house to replenish their food supply, attend a doc appointment, or go to the pharmacy helped me decide that everyone who asks gets a mask,” she said.
So far, Dennis has supplied masks for over 300 employees at Amtrak, where her husband Ed Dennis is employed as an assistant superintendent of Amtrak Bear Back Shoppes in Bear, Del.
She continued to make masks for employees at Ridley’s Swiss Farms store and Colonial Village, both on MacDade Boulevard.
“I find it truly amazing that I made masks for five families And just by word of mouth two weeks later I have made over 600 masks,” she stated. “I hope people keep contacting me for masks because I really want to get these masks out to anyone who needs them- everyone should be wearing a mask.”
The generous seamstress is now working to churn out masks 16 hours each day. All masks are free of charge. However, Dennis always accepts donations of cotton fabric, including sheets, curtains (no T-shirt material), any color thread, craft wire, freezer bags, elastic and 90/14 machine needles. She asks everyone to let her know how many adults and children and what genders they are because she makes different sizes: Toddler, child, adult female, adult male, and extra large.
To order masks, donate sewing materials, or for more information, contact Dennis at 610766–1237.
Laborers’ Local Union 413 deliver PPE and lunches to front line workers
CHESTER » The proud members of Laborers’ Local Union 413 of Chester delivered over 150 lunches and personal protective equipment on Friday, April 10, to the dedicated and hard-working men a woman serving on the front lines fighting COVID-19. Members of the construction union delivered meals to CrozerChester Medical Center, Chester Fire Department and the Chester Police Department.
“The meals were a token of appreciation to the men and woman that always answer the call when needed. We understand the first responders can have a thankless job, but at times like this we are looking to them to be that comforting face in a time of need during this time of uncertainty,” said a Unio 413 spokesman.