Non-profit hands out thousands of health bags to help homeless during COVID-19 pandemic

ATLANTA — The COVID-19 pandemic has marginalized the homeless community, causing a concern of possibly spreading the virus.

But some “love” is hitting Atlanta’s streets to help some of the people in most need at this time.

“This is a community right now that is being overlooked,” said Erica Wright, founder of the nonprofit Project U First.

Wright is putting the health and hygiene of the homeless front and center.

For six years, Wright has hit the streets of Atlanta to help the homeless.

“We’re providing something that people need just to be able to keep clean and to have something to eat,” Wright told Channel 2 anchor Wendy Corona.

Sack lunches and “love bags” with inspiring messages are provided to all she encounters.

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“We are everywhere. We are in parks, we are in the encampments and under bridges,” Wright said.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Project U First has distributed more than 16,000 love bags that contain health and hygiene products the homeless do not have easy access to.

“If our homeless are not clean and they don’t have the things that they need, it is definitely going to affect our environment,” Wright said.

Once homeless herself, Wright told Corona that she understands the community’s needs firsthand.

“Now I truly understand to give a person eye contact, to stop and listen to their story,” Wright said.

The sack lunches and love bags are jam-packed into Wright's 2008 Honda Civic, and sometimes deliveries can take days to complete.

In-kind donations see the non-profit through. It recently received a donation from the Atlanta Fibroid Center that will provide sanitary napkins to Project U First for the rest of 2020.

“We’re giving items out, but we’re also giving compassion and conversation and love,” Wright said.

Click here to learn more about Project U First. You can also help the organization by buying something for the organization from their Amazon wishlist.

COVID-19 pandemic impacting metro woman?s organization to help the needy Erica Wright, runs the group U First. She has found a way to hand out hygiene products and even bagged lunches to people who need it now more than ever.

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