The current, ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shown people’s true colors. Whereas some of them are acting irresponsibly by not respecting health recommendations and endangering others, the rest are wisely staying at home, donating and doing other altruistic initiatives. One person in the second group is New York Mets‘ bench coach Hensley Meulens.
The Curacao native is helping out the food bank daily, in order to provide families with groceries in times of need.
Meulens is a New York Mets representative in the Caribbean, specifically in Curacao. The organization has developed a fund to help employees in need, and it has secured some sort of payment to baseball operations staffers through the end of the originally scheduled season.
Curacao has a low number of confirmed cases as of Monday, with 16. However, the economy has been severely affected by quarantine measures and lots of families are struggling to put meals in their tables.
As a result, Meulens, who lives in Curacao, has been waking up very early to assist at the food bank to prepare and deliver meals and groceries to families in the island.
“We can’t cater to all of them,” Meulens told USA TODAY’s Bob Nightengale (cited by SNY), “but we’re helping out the best we can. The food bank is doing a great job. We just have to make sure people take care of their health.”
The Mets’ coach is providing a valuable contribution
The New York Mets’ coach added that Curacao “never had a disaster or catastrophe that has wiped out the economy like this has.” For an island that feeds off tourism, the income has been severely hit with virtually no traveling. Cruises, hotels, flights, restaurants and related business are shut down for the time being.
As for his role with the Mets, Meulens said that he gets in touch with Mets’ front office and coaches about once a week.
“We keep in touch with the players, making sure we care about their well-being, and that they’re staying active. But the unknown is so tough on everyone.”
“Just like baseball, we are going to get through this. I know we will. We just have to do everything we can to help each other so that when we do come back, this will make us stronger than ever before.”