Dear United Way Partner,

I wanted to provide an update on our mission and community response during the COVID-19 outbreak in our region. We are placing the utmost importance on the safety of our staff and the communities we serve, while serving as a resource for those most affected by the current situation within our 8-county region (Chickasaw, Itawamba, Lee, Monroe, Pontotoc, Prentiss, Tishomingo, and Union Counties).

The United Way of Northeast Mississippi is committed to practicing social distancing for the safety of our staff and the public. Therefore, our office is closed to the public and all staff are working from home as much as possible. When staff must be in the office, we are remaining a safe distance from one another and following strict cleaning and sanitation procedures. We have canceled many meetings and events for the safety of all involved, and we are staying at home as much as possible to do our part to “flatten the curve.” However, we are always available by phone at 662-841-9133 if you have questions or need information.

United Ways across the country are traditionally one of the first organizations to step forward in times of crisis, and we are committed to doing that for our region as we have many times before.

We are keeping an updated list of resources and information in a central location on our website at unitedwaynems.org/coronavirus. We encourage people to share that page and to send us any information that would be useful for others. Good, reliable information is key to weathering a crisis situation.

The Tupelo/Lee County Hunger Coalition, a United Way community initiative, has been on the front lines of ensuring that children continue to receive meals while schools are closed. Information on the organizations and locations involved in this effort is available on our website. We are also raising funds to help continue providing these meals, and you can donate at tupeloleehungercoalition.org/send-a-meal.

We are also compiling educational resources for students so that they can continue to learn while away from school. Those resources are also available on our website.

The unitedwaynems.org/coronavirus page is updated multiple times throughout the day as information becomes available. The same information is shared on our social media pages and those of the Hunger Coalition, Early Childhood Coalition, and Volunteer Northeast Mississippi as appropriate. You can find links to all those social media pages on the website.

Right now, we are all uncertain about the future and the situation changes each day, but we want to assure you that United Way will be here to assist in whatever capacity we can.

We will keep the lines of communication open to best support everyone, from our partner agencies, our business partners, and everyone in our communities.

We appreciate your support during this time and encourage you to please reach out to us if there is any way we can be of help, or if you have information about resources that we can share.

Together, we will all get through this. Our community is strong because of people like you. We will work together to help everyone weather this crisis together and come out even stronger on the other side.

Thank you for your continued support,

Melinda Tidwell

President, United Way of Northeast Mississippi