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Coronavirus roundup | Local | Journal Gazette

Here are changes, cancellations and other updates related to the coronavirus outbreak.

For a detailed list, go to www.journalgazette.net and under blogs select The Scoop.

Citilink receives federal grant

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration announced a $9.1 million grant award Tuesday for Fort Wayne Public Transportation Corp., also known as Citilink.

The grant, part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. The grant will support buying and operating and preventive maintenance costs, including the purchase of equipment, replacing and refurbishing buses and renovating a bus storage facility.

“We know many of our nation’s public transportation systems are facing extraordinary challenges, and these funds will go a long way to assisting our transit industry partners in battling COVID-19,” FTA Deputy Administrator Jane Williams said.

“These federal funds will support operating assistance to transit agencies of all sizes providing essential travel and supporting transit workers across the country who are unable to work because of the public health emergency.”

Dash-In closed for deep cleaning

The Dash-In restaurant downtown closed Tuesday for a week because of a coronavirus exposure.

The staff announced the closure on the Farcebook page of the restaurant at 814 S. Calhoun St.

“Rest assured that during the closure, the restaurant will undergo a deep clean and all the staff will be tested. When it is safe to reopen, we will do so,” the message says.

A message on the restaurant’s answering machine says the restaurant will reopen Monday.

Zinnia’s closed out of caution

Zinnia’s Bakehouse, 236 E. Wayne St., announced on its Facebook page it’s closing its retail sales until further notice because of possible COVID-19 exposure.

“Our team has not tested positive, but we feel this is something we need to do out of an abundance of caution,” the business said on Facebook.

Healthy Habits gets Rifkin gift

The Rifkin Family Foundation has donated $25,000 to support the Boys & Girls Clubs of Fort Wayne’s Healthy Habits Packets program. The program distributed health care products weekly to underserved families in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Many of the food needs were being met with the wonderful work of agencies focused in that area, but items like shampoo, soap, laundry detergent, feminine hygiene products and diapers became a real issue for economically challenged families,” said Joe Jordan, president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Fort Wayne.

“The club, donors and volunteers stepped in to fill that gap,” he said in a statement.

Included with the health care products are boxes of perishable food – meals that would cover a week for a family of four – and dairy products. The Rifkin family’s gift allows the Boys & Girls Clubs to continue the local program to help meet some of the increasing needs of struggling families during the pandemic.

Each Tuesday and Thursday, the Boys & Girls Clubs has distributed the Healthy Habits Packets. In total, more than 11,000 packets have been distributed to serve over 38,000 people.

Meijer to expand giving campaigns

Meijer announced Tuesday that its seasonal hunger relief program, Simply Give, will conduct back-to-back fall and holiday campaigns to ensure the maximum amount of support for food pantries that are trying to keep up with increased demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Each Meijer Simply Give campaign replenishes the shelves of more than 250 food pantries in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Wisconsin.

The program encourages customers to purchase $10 Simply Give donation cards, which are then converted into Meijer food-only gift cards and given to a local food pantry in the store’s community.

Each new campaign gives Meijer stores the opportunity to partner with a different local pantry in order to best serve their community.

The fall Simply Give campaign will run for nine weeks, until Oct. 24 – a four-week extension over previous fall campaigns. The holiday campaign will start immediately following the end of the fall campaign and run for the remainder of the year to continue to provide relief to local food pantries throughout the holiday season.

The fall campaign will feature two “double match days” – Sept. 11 and Sept. 12. Meijer will double match every $10 donation card a customer purchases on those days so that an additional $20 is added to the donation, tripling the impact of each customer’s generosity.

– Journal Gazette

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