Lehigh Valley Hispanic Center returns to in person operations

Silence. 

That is how Carolina Hernandez, assistant dean and director of the Community Service Office described the atmosphere at the Hispanic Center Lehigh Valley throughout the pandemic. 

The Hispanic Center houses a senior center, food pantry and offers legal services at its location on East Fourth Street. The pandemic modified many of the Hispanic Center’s day to day operations. 

A place that once supported an active volunteer network was reduced to a limited staff. 

The Hispanic Center Lehigh Valley offers Food Pantry Program to low-income residents of Northampton County to ensure access to healthy and nutritious food options. Due to COVID-19, services are offered with appointments. (Yifan Zhang/B&W Staff)

“We just couldn’t continue managing with only staff, so we began to bring in one to two volunteers at a time,” said Victoria Montero, executive director for the Hispanic Center, said the center started bringing in one to two volunteers at a time to support staff. 

The Basilio Huertas Senior Center, a senior center in Bethlehem that is part of the Hispanic Center, provides healthy meals, educational workshops, monitoring of chronic illnesses, exercise programs and recreational activities for those 60-years-old and above. 

Through personal case management and group activities, seniors in the community can receive consistent support. Due to COVID-19, the center had to close to keep clients safe. 

The surrounding community helped chip in while volunteer opportunities were limited. 

“I would say in the Lehigh Valley there is always a willingness to help,” Hernandez said. “We saw a lot of people donating financially which was huge, because there was price gouging on food costs.” 

Diana Sanchez, Interim food pantry coordinator of Hispanic Center Lehigh Valley, arranges fresh food at the HCLV on Sept. 10, 2021. The HCLV offers Food Pantry Program to low-income residents of Northampton County to ensure access to healthy and nutritious food options. (Yifan Zhang/B&W Staff)

Much of the Hispanic Center’s focus transitioned to its food pantry. What was once a choice food pantry, allowing clients to pick out the foods which best suited their families, became a hands off operation, where clients received premade boxes of food. 

Demand for the food pantry’s services increased as the pandemic caused financial insecurity for many people in the community, Hernandez said.

“We couldn’t have that many people coming in when we still didn’t know if you could contract COVID from surfaces and items,” Hernandez said. “The Hispanic Center did an excellent job maintaining the health and safety of staff, volunteers, and clients throughout the pandemic.” 

Anyone living in 18015 and 18020 zip codes is welcome to utilize the Hispanic Center’s food pantry, which operates four times a month. Fresh fruit and vegetables are provided along with traditional Hispanic food, as over 50 percent of clients are Hispanic. 

Cameron Wood, ‘22, led a PreLusion group in August on the South Side that worked with the Hispanic Center. First-year students were able to assist in unloading trucks of food and organizing items for the food pantry. 

“During that time they were able to talk to the employees, along with community members, to learn more about what the Hispanic Center does as a whole and how it benefits people individually,” Wood said.

In addition to the food pantry, the “Women, Infants and Children” program provides pregnant women, new mothers and children up to five with nutrition education. 

The free program teaches healthy food choices, infant feeding and child development. Participants receive vouchers for healthy food at grocery stores and farmers markets. Throughout the pandemic the program conducted appointments virtually, but has returned to doing them in person.

The Basilio Huertas Senior Center has also returned to in-person operations. 

“Having the senior center back and helping aging seniors have a space where they get to enjoy being with their friends and have a nice meal has been great,” Montero said. “They get to enjoy socialization and that is so good for their mental health.”

In the future the Hispanic Center hopes to continue growing and serving the community, Montero said. 

“I would like to see us continue to provide opportunities especially for economic recovery after the pandemic,” she said. “We want to continue to expand our services to serve more people than ever before.”

Volunteers and staffs dispatch and arrange fresh food at the Hispanic Center Lehigh Valley on Sept. 10, 2021. HCLV holds the Food Pantry Program to low-income residents of Northampton County to ensure access to healthy and nutritious food options. (Yifan Zhang/B&W Staff)