JEFFERSON PARISH, La. — Cars began lining up before 7 a.m. Wednesday for afternoon food distribution at the Alario Center on the West Bank.
By noon, hundreds of cars lined the entrance road, snaking their way around the event center property past Segnette baseball field.
Second Harvest Food Bank and the Jefferson Parish Council established the Alario Center as one of the main sites to get the food to residents hurting during the economic hardship caused by the coronavirus shutdown.
Rick Kennair pulled up along Airline highway at 7 a.m., “and there were about 25 cars ahead of me,” he said.
Food distribution was scheduled to begin seven hours later at 2 p.m.
The line of cars, hundreds long, all strung together in a time of separation was a striking sight. Each person, each vehicle held a story of hardship.
“I do CNA work. But right now I'm unemployed,” said Pearl Wyman. She had just finished praying the rosary while others played games on their phones. Some took naps to pass the time.
“I live on social security, but my social security is only $300 a month. I can't really live on that,” Wyman said.
Rick Kennair painted on alligator skulls he would typically be selling in the French Market to pass the time.
“I sell all the alligator parts. Back scratchers and things like that,” he said.
Bob Ross taught the one-time alligator farmer how to paint the happy little cypress trees on the alligators. Kennair said the two were in the Air Force together. But fear taught him to get out of the French Market on March 10, before it closed, as the coronavirus started to spread.
“I got scared. I'm 75 and I didn't want to take no chances. My wife has diabetes,” he said.
Kennair is also a taxidermist, as Louisiana as Louisiana gets.
His story was one of so many contained in cars forming the line of mutual suffering around the Alario Center Wednesday, those of cab drivers and nursing assistants, housekeepers and church pastors.
They were all a car’s distance apart, together in tragedy.
“It's kind of crazy because I lost my job. I'm not working,” said Bobbie Wilson, who was an employee at Louisiana Pizza Kitchen in the French Quarter until the coronavirus shut down.
Maggie Williams, who was fourth in line Wednesday, had just discovered the coronavirus took the life of the elderly woman she cared for.
“Just lost the lady I worked with for 21 years. She just passed almost two weeks ago,” Williams said.
This huge crowd, separated by vehicles and life experiences, united together in fear and even faith as they waited hours in the heat for food.
“I'm scared really. Because I have a lot of health issues myself. Like diabetes, high blood pressure, a pace maker, you know. So, I'm really scared,” Paulette Jackson said.
“We are blessed to be blessed,” Williams said.
Second Harvest Food Bank was evaluating whether to continue the mass distribution sites at the Alario Center and Zephyr Field. They will likely move to more community-centered distribution sites as things change in the coming weeks.
The best way to find out where to get food if you need it is by calling the statewide hotline 211.
If you’d like to donate to Second Harvest to help feed those in need, you can do so at www.no-hunger.org.
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