Childcare program opens to Lodi hospital workers
A childcare system administered by Lodi’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services for essential city workers such as police and firefighters is being expanded to cover essential personnel from Adventist Health Lodi Memorial Hospital.
The service was already a collaboration between agencies — the city’s parks and rec department runs an after-school program in partnership with Lodi Unified School District.
“Parks and Recreation have a long-standing history of after-school program service,” said Cathi DeGroot, the interim parks and rec director. “The schools are closed down, and we have about 60 employees with nothing to do, and we want to keep them out of the unemployment line.”
The result is a childcare system that can accommodate up to 30 children at three sites. DeGroot said the collaboration was the brainchild of City Manager Steve Schwabauer, but Schwabauer said he didn’t know if he could take credit for it.
“We considered doing it for our officers and firefighters to make sure they’re there for those in need, and obviously nurses are very much in the same position,” Schwabauer said. “We absolutely need those people to care for us when we need it. If they have childcare complications they can’t be doing that.”
The service has been open to City of Lodi essential employees since March 18, and opened to Lodi Memorial personnel on Monday.
With the current environment, the hygiene restrictions are strict, following both San Joaquin County and Centers for Disease Control guidelines to the letter, which includes not sending the child if anyone in the house has a cough or a temperature, bathrooms will be cleansed after each use, toys will be cleaned before and after each use, touchable surfaces will be cleaned before, during and after care, and staff will perform a deep, disinfecting clean at the end of the day. All snacks and lunches are individually wrapped, and group games are played with a 6foot distance between players.
“We received three thermometers from the hospital, to do temperature readings, making sure we are not receiving any children who are displaying symptoms,” DeGroot said. “We worked with Lodi Memorial experts on those protocols.”
The service is available from Monday through Friday, and costs $165 per week for full days, or $120 per week for half days.
“We are working with our community to pull together resources for our staff to care for families during the school closure. The needs are rapidly evolving as school closure timelines expand and childcare options become more limited,” said Nicole Krahmer, Lodi Memorial’s human performance director, via text.
DeGroot said in her early conversations with Krahmer, the hospital could have up to 20 employees take advantage of the childcare service, with about 30 children.
“I think it’s a shining example of agencies pulling together to share resources in a time of crisis,” DeGroot said, “and to support the health care system here in Lodi, not only for City of Lodi essential personnel.”
Schwabauer was proud of the way different agencies came together to help Lodi.
“I think it’s really crucial, and something really special about Lodi that we are able to reach out to each other quickly between agencies to come up with solutions to keep the community safe,” Schwabauer said. “I have really valued our relationship with the Chamber, Lodi Memorial, the county, and Lodi Unified as we’ve had to work together more and more to respond to this situation.”