Tag Archives: COVID-19

Containing COVID Is Key To Economic Recovery

Restaurants and retailing have been hurt badly by COVID-19 outbreak and business shutdowns. (VBR)

The Rio Grande Valley’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis will be prolonged. It could take 12-to-18 months, at the minimum, said leading bankers and economic development specialists. They say the recovery from the widespread business shutdowns this spring will stretch well into 2021. Recovery will also be dependent on one key factor. “It’s all going to depend on how we contain COVID,” said David Deanda, the president of Lone…

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Getting Stuff Done To Help Those In Need

A nonprofit executive like Traci Wickett has connections everywhere in a community.  The president and chief executive officer of the United Way of Southern Cameron County heard from Brownsville’s Good Neighbor Settlement House about growing needs they were seeing as furloughs and unemployment set in with the outbreak of COVID-19. The demand for served meals and emergency pantry items doubled in less than one week in early April.  “Unemployment sent…

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All Part of the Plan

Indeera Mohammed, McAllen AFT organizer, and Sylvia Tanguma, McAllen AFT president, present a check for $3,000 to Stuart I. R. Haniff, chief executive officer for the Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley, and his executive assistant, Gabriela Parra, on behalf of the members of the Central Labor Council, McAllen AFT and the Texas AFL-CIO. (VBR)

“Be prepared, not scared. Be proactive, not reactive.” ~ Stuart I.R. Haniff. When your mission is to fight hunger and to feed hope, countless people in your community are relying on you to be prepared. Stuart I. R. Haniff, the chief executive officer of the Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley Inc., took that mission to heart in preparing his organization’s response to the COVID-19 crisis. Haniff and his…

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Harlingen Moves Forward Aiding Business

Harlingen Economic Loan Program

The Harlingen Economic Loan Program for Small Business committee convened May 13 to review and consider more than 60 loan application submissions. Applications come from businesses experiencing a more than 25 percent economic loss during the current crisis versus last year’s revenue. The committee also evaluated the required documentation, including financial information, in order to make a fair decision. In April the Harlingen EDC board set aside $1,000,000 to fund…

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Hidalgo Website Offers Recovery Assistance

HidalgoCares.org

Hidalgo County’s Hidalgo Cares website HidalgoCares.org is live to respond, recover and rebuild in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The new community-based website provides recovery assistance information to businesses and individuals. It includes a guide to local restaurants, as well as utility assistance and housing information. There is also the latest information on economic recovery, and available resources for food, health, safety and education. Other helpful resources for bolstering…

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Student Helps by Printing Protection

Julio Garza found a niche creating protective face shields for healthcare providers. (photo STC)

It initially began as a way to help protect his mother Cecilia, a nurse at several healthcare agencies in the Valley. Julio Garza now runs an effort to support the medical community in the region as a whole.   Garza, 23, says he found a niche creating protective face shields for healthcare providers by utilizing 3D printing techniques he learned as a student with the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Program at…

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Distance Learning – More than Academics

Laert Musollari, 11th-grade violinist, records his individual video which was mixed with other students to create a virtual performance of McAllen High School’s Mariachi Oro.

March Madness took on an entirely new meaning this spring when schools, businesses and even day-to-day living came to a screeching halt due to COVID-19.  Everything changed from one day-to-the-next. For school districts, COVID-19 meant transforming the traditional concept of teaching into robust home-to-home learning, which is better known as “distance learning.’’ At IDEA Toros in Edinburg, technology-based Summit Learning is often used. It incorporates a Self-Directed Learning Cycle. The…

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Pandemic Jolts Valley Life With Changes

The month of March started like any other with businesses to run, bills to pay and jobs to fill. There was also a general awareness of a growing threat. The COVID-19, known as the coronavirus, was making its way across the oceans to the United States.  In fact, it had already arrived. By mid-March, the threat was very real. Coronavirus outbreaks hit both coasts of the United States. Texas would…

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Linda’s Cakes Transforms to Serve Community

Andrea Bernes of Linda’s Cakes & Desserts Speciality Shop helps a customer with a purchase of goods like beans and potatoes now being sold at the Brownsville bakery. (Courtesy)

For Andrea Bernes, it started with a question that would transform her bakery in the coronavirus era. “A customer asked me if I would sell her flour,” said Bernes, the owner of Linda’s Cakes & Desserts Specialty Shop. Bernes mulled that over. It was mid-March and long lines were forming at grocery stores as the COVID-19 crisis arrived in the Rio Grande Valley.  “Then one of my suppliers asked if…

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RGV Businesses Move Quickly To New Normal

Family Nurse Practitioner Michael Menchaca is at 100-percent telemedicine during the coronavirus crisis. (Courtesy)

Rio Grande Valley businesses, like those around the country, are dealing with disruptions and an upheaval in a way of life unlike anything experienced in our lifetimes.  Here’s a look at how three RGV businesses prepared for what they knew was coming and how they are doing in adapting to a new normal. Menchaca Family Clinic Michael Menchaca didn’t wait for any official announcements for Menchaca Family Clinic. The family…

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