Wicked Local
In the span of a year, a local group concerned about the welfare of their neighbors during the COVID pandemic expanded from 49 to thousands of people wanting to help.
Newton Neighbors Helping Neighbors (NNHN) was created in March 2020 after resident Shalini A. Tendulkar asked a question on a Newton parents’ Facebook page right after the start of the pandemic: “Do we know what would happen to families whose kids get free or reduced-cost lunches at school if the schools shut down?”
After almost 50 people responded, sharing the concern, Tendulkar created a separate Facebook group to address the issue and “find other ways to support our community,” she said previously.