Dispatches from a Pandemic A Meals on Wheels in upstate New York went from delivering 800 or 900 meals a week to 5,000 On February 18, Kevin Hardy became the president and CEO of the local Meals on Wheels program in New York’s Rockland County. Less than a month later, the pandemic would force Hardy to rethink how his organization serves a community that is one of the most vulnerable to COVID-19. “Our particular Meals on Wheels was started in 1974, for all of that time, up until March of this...

Having access to the CARE Act’s Paycheck Protection Program would have been a lifeline for these companies, owners say Things have never been easy for Massachusetts cannabis businesses, says Ellen Rosenfeld. “I’ve been in this over five years; it’s been one fight after another,” says Rosenfeld, president of CommCan, which is licensed by the Massachusetts government to grow and sell both recreational and medical cannabis. “Nothing’s been easy, nothing.” Less than six months after the company’s...

Like many self-employed Americans, Andre Shakti has lost most of her income over the past few weeks. Most of the clients who used to see her in person have stopped calling, the business where she worked as an independent contractor is closed, and a conference she co-organizes has been canceled. But unlike most sole proprietors and independent contractors, Shakti says she’s not eligible for federal assistance under the $2.2 trillion CARES Act. It’s one of the few categories of businesses that...

Dispatches from a Pandemic South Africa’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has improved from previous health crises, but the police and military have been concentrated in the poorest areas JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Johannesburg usually is a city with a soundtrack. It’s a place where you hear music from passing cars and from businesses with open windows and doors. It’s late summer here and, on most weekends, you’d hear the sound — and smell the smoke — from barbecues, or braais as...