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What services could a community center /soccer camp offer during a year-long pandemic? Funny you should ask...
Sanneh Foundation has given out so much food, they bought box trucks that operate out of Conway Rec Center. “Especially with the Latino population, there’s a huge need but they’re not comfortable” asking for help, says Tony Sanneh. He’s doing big distributions in St. Paul, Mpls.
School is in session at Conway Rec Center in St. Paul. With the help of Comcast, @Sannehfdn converted the gym into distance schooling fit 15 kids, and then 60. One kid and multiple staff have had COVID or exposures, but actual sickness has been the exception.
There’s space for 120 students, but they fit 60 to allow for distancing. Mornings are mostly elementary school kids. High school students will arrive after 2 pm. Some are gravitating back to schools now that in-person classes are resuming, but many will stay on here.
“Some kids have actually performed better in distance learning. We all learn differently. The jury is still out on everything (but COVID in schools is a concern). There are some charter schools that aren’t going back. We are encouraging people, if your school is open, (go back).”
With help of Comcast, they’ve outfitted the gym with amenities — including charging stations and secure phone lock-ups.
Future plans call for inflatable dome, non-rubber infill and a special pad to reduce concussions and improve safety at a multi-purpose field. There’s 3 main fields and 50-by-50 play space. “Any sport you play you’ll be able to participate,” from soccer to baseball to volleyball.
Mondays they deliver 100 meals to seniors and home-bound adults, on top of drive-up distribution in Burnsville for a Latino outreach that serves 500 families (up to 2,000 to 3,000 people). Tuesday is food distribution to 250 families with kids at rec center, plus homeless sites.
Wednesdays 250 meals are distributed at Feeding Frogtown, Oromo church, Camden Collective in North Mpls, other sites, on top of drive-ups at the rec center. Thursday: 600 pre-cooked meals to homeless, partners, New Hope Church in St. Paul. 6-8 partners on any given day!
Eric Stempinski ran soccer camps for Sanneh — as many as 104 in a summer — and when those got socially distanced he had to learn emergency food distribution in a hurry. He was college roommate to Sanneh at Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His training: hitting soccer balls in native Philly.
Thursday evening, they send as many as 18 palettes of food to their warehouse, — think of lb. bags of onions — which needs to be sorted into food boxes with help of paid local youth. That goes out at 7 a.m. to North Minneapolis, distributed to Corchran families. Recipes attached.
Food distribution, according to Eric: “Just like the camps We get them to a level of competency where they can run the activities.”
Ofir Germanic, education director, teaches youth studies at the U.
Renovating the old gym and kitchen cost $450,000, largely paid for by Super Bowl Legacy grant, Vikings, US Bank, Securian, etc. Future plans call for more 1 new program building connected to inflatable dome that comes up for winter, modern athletic fields.
What’s the future hold for Sanneh Foundation? Moving its administrative functions (finance, HR, camps administration) out of Conway Rec to make more room for Sanneh’s direct service programs. Tony: “We’d run more programs. We can’t run programs because we’ve run out of space.”
Sanneh, whose mom was a Ramsey County social worker for 40+ years, grew up on the East Side and played major league soccer. “As long as you were willing to change what you do, you’d have a job because there were so many needs in the community. We didn’t have to downsize at all.”
For last 2 weeks, they’ve done food distribution on Fridays at Cochran Park in North Mnpls, feeding 200+ Latino families. It had been done at Powderhorn through city Minneapolis and Second Harvest Heartland but it became logistically difficult. It was at risk of being canceled.
