Mile-long line in Missouri City shows virus crisis not over
Antonio Garcia and his wife, Carmen, arrived at the church in Missouri City three hours before the food and mask distribution was set to begin on Saturday. And he was far from the first in line.
The 52-year-old has been out of work for two months after losing his job as a warehouse worker during the shutdown from COVID-19. It was his first time at such a site.
“We don’t like it,” he said, wincing a little, as two boxes of food, along with masks and hand sanitizer were loaded into the trunk of his aging Toyota. “But we have to.”
The midday event at Missouri City Baptist Church was mobbed as a nearly mile-long line of cars idled on the adjacent suburban street, waiting their turn. The turnout, organizers said, is a stark reminder that the intertwined health and economic crises are far from over.
“I’m extremely worried,” said Dr. Kathy Flanagan, president of the Houston Medical Forum, an association of black physicians founded in 1926, and who serves on the medical care subcommittee of Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner’s Health Equity Task Force.
“We need to get the word out. Again,” she said.
Last week, Texas set a record for COVID-19 hospitalizations in four out of five days. One Houston hospital reported it had to expand its COVID unit to keep pace with new admissions. And at the city’s safety-net hospitals, last week marked the highest level yet of patients with the virus.
Simultaneously, even as the state has now mostly reopened its businesses, the unemployment rate last week remained more than six times higher than before the shutdown, with 90,000 Texans filing for unemployment benefits, according to the Department of Labor.
On Saturday, each family received two boxes of food, including apples, oranges, beans, soup, canned vegetables and onions. The next stop was a tent where volunteers distributed at least
two masks per car, depending on the number of occupants. They also received bottles of hand sanitizer.
There were 500 two-box sets available for distribution. By about 1:20 p.m., they were gone and everyone in line received one, said Flanagan.
Not going away soon
“The pandemic is still in our city and the virus has exacerbated food and economic insecurities, especially in under-served communities,” said Turner, who was among the community leaders present.
“I’m really here for the masks,” said Bernice Brown who had been waiting more than two hours in the line of cars. The 67-year-old from Missouri City knows what the virus can do and it scares her, especially since she already has respiratory problems. Her friend’s husband died from it a few weeks back. The suffering the entire family went through is not something she will easily forget.
‘Just, no, y’all’
In fact, she will not even allow her two adult sons to come inside her house because she thinks they do not take enough precautions. Instead they visit outside, from the driveway.
“Look, I understand that you’re tired of being stuck at home and want to go do things again, but when you know what it’s like, when you know someone who has had it …:,” she said, her voice trailing off as she summons the right words to tell those who are taking risks. “Just, no, y’all.”