What started as a way to help people in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic has transitioned into a program to assist the hundreds of migrants arriving from the southern border by the busloads in Wilmette, Highland Park and other north suburbs, officials said.
The Service and Learning Together program launched in the north suburbs in May 2020 to help provide residents with food, hand sanitizer and other items as people around the world were learning to social distance, wear facemasks and wash their hands at every opportunity, explained cofounder of SaLT Brad Swanson.
With COVID-19 in the rearview mirror, SaLT has kept busy providing car packages to the hundreds of asylum seekers from the Texas border who started arriving at north suburban train stations and police departments last December.
“The ‘Shop and Drop’ program started during COVID,” said Swanson. “Everyone thought maybe three weeks or a month and it would be over. Here we are four years later working through the same needs. Thankfully the infrastructure of distribution to those in need was in place.”
According to SaLT’s website, the program is designed to assist migrants, recently arriving in the north suburbs via bus from Texas before being taken to the Chicago Processing Center.
“The ‘Take Care’ packages will be a tangible expression of our community’s care for others,” the website says. “SaLT recognizes the challenges faced by those arriving in a new community, state, or country and we aim to ease their transition by providing essential items that will promote well-being and comfort.”
More Top Picks Best Car Seat Heaters
The packages include water, non-perishable food items, personal hygiene products, first aid kits, winter clothing, baby items and children’s comfort items such as books/games/stuffed animals and a note of welcome and encouragement in Spanish is attached to each package.
Several busloads of migrants arrived at the Linden Square CTA station in Wilmette on Dec. 31, at least 40 migrants arrived on Dec. 16 at a Metra stop in Highland Park, a bus dropped off immigrants at the Hubbard Woods Metra station on Dec. 25 and more arrived last week, said officials.
“The migrant issues is certainly extremely complicated and politicized a lot,” said SaLT cofounder Ida Fiore. “What we’re choosing to do is to simplify it down to the fact that these are human being in need. We have the opportunity because of the strengths of our communities to show them our love and support in an extremely difficult times in their lives.”
Donation boxes have been placed at banks, churches, synagogues and other areas in Wilmette, Winnetka, Glencoe and Highland Park, according to Fiore. The group is looking to provide the supplies before migrants board Metra trains into Chicago.
Wilmette has not put any one-way busing ordinances in place unlike neighboring communities like Winnetka, Glencoe and Highland Park.
These ordinances targeted unscheduled, one-way busing and required prior notice and authorization by municipalities of drop-offs. Officials in these municipalities say the ordinances are designed with the safety of migrants in mind to ensure they aren’t left without resources or guidance.
“In the big picture I think the thing the communities that we’ve been working with have learned is the importance of a shared responsibility on this topic,” Swanson added. “There’s been unbelievable collaboration with the mindset of supporting these people who are in crisis.”
Swanson hopes SaLT’s community collaboration can also inspire political collaboration.
“Anything can be accomplished when people come together with a common goal to serve each other,” he said.
Brian L. Cox is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.