Photo courtesy of Sharing Excess

Sharing Excess, a Philadelphia non-profit dedicated to providing healthy food to local communities, is hosting a Free Food Fest this Saturday, Aug. 1 from 12 – 3 p.m. at Monumental Baptist Church (50th and Locust).

Free Food Fest will be a grab-n-go market in partnership with Wawa, Giant Heirloom, Saxbys, and other local Philly food sponsors. Food donors will set up booths in the parking lot of Monumental Baptist Church and distribute food and beverages for free. Reusable bags will be distributed at the entrance to be used as “grocery boxes” at the corner of 50th St. between Locust and Chancellor from 12 – 3 p.m..  Continue Reading

The Free Library of Philadelphia is still not ready to welcome patrons into its buildings for regular visits. But here’s some good news. This week, some Free Library locations have begun offering limited services including returns, material pickups, and phone reference. In West Philadelphia, the following locations are now open for limited service:

• Lucien E. Blackwell West Philadelphia Regional Library (52nd and Sansom)

• Haverford Library (5543 Haverford Avenue)

• Walnut Street West Library (40th and Walnut)  Continue Reading

Re-opening of indoor dining in Philadelphia has been postponed until at least Sept. 1 due to COVID-19 concerns, according to an announcement by Philadelphia health officials made on Tuesday.

Philadelphia is currently in a modified Green re-opening phase with outdoor dining allowed. Indoor dining was expected to reopen in the city by the beginning of August, however the number of new coronavirus cases has increased in the past two weeks.

Some 142 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 were announced in Philadelphia on Tuesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 29,945.  Continue Reading

The School District of Philadelphia has scrapped a plan that would allow most students to attend school in person a couple of days a week and announced today that all students will start the year online.

The district presented the new plan following public criticism of a plan introduced earlier this month that would allow most students to attend school two days per week. Students will attend school online until at least Nov. 17, the end of the first marking period.

The hybrid learning model, the district’s original plan of a mix of in-person and digital learning, will be reconsidered after Nov. 17.

The Board of Education will consider the proposed changes at its meeting this Thursday, July 30 at 4 p.m.

For more information on the revised plan, please visit the School District website.

If your trash/recycling collection days are Monday or Tuesday, please hold on to your recyclables until next week. The Streets Department has been a few days behind with collections for the past three weeks and has suspended recycling collection for these two days to help them return to a normal schedule. Residents can place trash out on their normal trash collection day beginning Monday, July 27.

The delays in collections were due to a few factors, including shortage of staff who called in sick with COVID-19, the tropical storm that hit our area on July 10 and an overall increase in trash/recyclables amount this month due to the holidays.

Recycling continues to be delayed by several days as the Streets Department is focusing on trash collection to mitigate risks to health and public safety. The Department expects to return to a normal recycling schedule on Wednesday, July 29.

After a four-month closure, the Penn Museum is reopening its doors to visitors. The official reopening date is Tuesday, July 28 and the museum will have COVID-19 safety protocols in place, such as limited capacity in the galleries and advanced online ticket reservations for visitors.

Admission to the museum will be timed to help social distancing and floors will have special markings to guide visitors on a one-way route through the museum.  Continue Reading