#CEAMCares

Family Emergency Relief Fund

The CEAM Team is working in real-time with hundreds of highly vulnerable Missouri families whose lives are being drastically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In all corners of the state, our families’ needs are already at the critical phase.

Families’ most immediate concerns are often amplified by loss of income or family business, a sick child or family member, and the closing of their child’s school.

We urge you to consider supporting CEAM’s most vulnerable families and please keep in mind… no contribution is too large.

CEAM has heard from dozens of families about the various challenges they are facing during the pandemic. Here are some of their stories:

In one family the mother is on disability and the father will be out of work starting at the end of this week. They have only enough supplies to last about five days. Their income exceeds the amount to allow them to apply for food stamps and with local area pantries low on supplies, they don’t know what they will do. In addition, the mother is exhibiting all the signs of the coronavirus but hasn’t been able to access a test.

Sarah

Another mother she spoke with is a single mother raising her 10 year old son and has exhausted the list of resources available to her in her area. Her local food bank has only been able to supply her with canned food. She has had no access to produce, meat or paper products. Her son has exhibited some of the signs of the virus and she also has not been able to get him tested since his fever hasn’t exceeded 104 and the test is also cost prohibitive at $100.

Sophia

A single father raising his college-age son is an Uber driver and says that ridership has plummeted and he is lucky to get even one customer per day. He is looking into other options such as Uber Eats but is concerned that he will not be able to make up his losses in the past couple weeks and be able to make the same income he was making prior to the virus. Being elderly with health issues he is very concerned about his employment options as well as exposure to the virus.

Paul

Another single mother raising four children says she can’t keep enough food on the table with two of her children being teenagers. She says she will be buying a lock for her cabinets so she can ration her food supply. Her youngest is recovering from a serious burn injury and being an hourly worker in her kids’ school district she is currently unemployed. She is also struggling with keeping the peace at home since the five of them live in an 800 square foot house.

Ellen

IF YOU ARE A CEAM Family in need, we urge you to complete this brief questionnaire that will help us understand the size and urgency of your need. Your answers will help us explain to generous supporters exactly what is going on with families during the Covid-19 epidemic. We can’t make any promises of how much we can help. We don’t want to raise false hopes. It all depends on the generosity of our friends, allies and supporters.

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