By Emily Riley
Katie Manganelli is a cashier at a Whole Foods in Belmont, Massachusetts, just 10 minutes outside of Boston. But when she, along with thousands of other University of Maryland students, was sent home due to the spread of COVID-19, she didn’t return to work.
“My mom didn’t really say anything about me going back to work because I didn’t ask, I knew she would’ve said no,” said Manganelli, a sophomore journalism major. “I would have come into contact with way too many people every day for her to be comfortable with me going back.”
As a grocery store employee, Manganelli is an essential worker. But going to work means putting herself and those she lives with in danger.
“I really need the money but I need to focus on school while we’re still taking classes and I realized the number of people that I would’ve come in contact with,” said Manganelli. “Grocery store workers are on the front lines. Everyone needs food to live so everyone is still going into grocery stores, no matter what state of health that they are in.”
Manganelli isn’t alone. She’s one of the many college students acclimating to life at home after being sent home for the semester as COVID-19 spread. If they’re lucky, students are able to return to a seasonal job they already had. Others are out of work completely.
Under these circumstances, it isn’t as easy as simply returning to work. If you are fortunate enough to have a job, you have to decide whether the reward of working is worth the risk of getting sick. Still, this is only the reality for students who can still financially rely on their parents or guardians in tough times— those who live alone and must support themselves rarely have a choice.
“There’s really no way to grocery shop 100% safely at the moment. Everyone is touching all the same things like the counters and belts and fridge doors and people touch produce to determine the ripeness of things. I don’t think it’s very safe to be at work but so many of those people make minimum wage and have no choice but to go,” said Manganelli.
According to a Washington Post report, over 10 million Americans filed for unemployment in March, and 6.6 million in the past week alone. Stuck in the in-between phase of the end of teenage years and the beginning of adulthood, some students still work minimum wage jobs, or hold low-paid internships, if that.
Molly Cuddy, a sophomore journalism major, works at Rita’s Italian Ice in Hamilton, New Jersey.
“I don’t consider Rita’s an essential business. The products we serve are not a necessity,” said Cuddy.
But even still, Rita’s is still open and accepting customers, which means that Cuddy has been working.
“When I came home, I expected Rita’s to be open because a lot of businesses and restaurants still were at the time. Once non-essential businesses started closing, I thought that Rita’s would too,” said Cuddy. “At first, my parents and I were wary about me going to work, but at this time Rita’s is pretty short on workers so I decided to work, but only a few days a week.”
Cuddy said that Rita’s is one of the only businesses still open in her town, which has been drawing in a surprising number of customers despite stay-at-home orders from the state.
“We’ve been getting a lot of business on warmer days,” said Cuddy. “As the weeks have been going on, I’ve noticed that we’ve gotten less busy, but people are still steadily coming.”
Rita’s and countless other businesses that remain open have had to dramatically change their rules.
“I try to wash my hands or at least put on hand sanitizer after every interaction I have with a customer. Right now, we’re not able to serve any cones because we touch them and they just told us that we’re going to have to start wearing masks while working,” said Cuddy. “Rita’s also postponed free day, where we give free ice on the first day of spring, just because it usually draws large crowds and that wouldn’t be practicing social distancing.”
Students with summer jobs lined up are aware that they may not be able to return given the uncertain nature of COVID-19.
“I haven’t had a job since last summer and lived in an apartment this year so I was more financially responsible for a lot of things, it was pretty stress inducing,” said Michelle O’Connell, a sophomore English major, whose summer job was at a country club in her hometown, Danbury, Connecticut. “Since I have my own rent to pay off next year I was planning on working all day every day to get some money saved, but since it’s looking like I’ll only get half a summer, if that, it’s pretty concerning.”
Not being able to work is a financial burden on many students, especially those paying off their yearly rent – which if they live off campus most likely won’t be refunded – and tuition.
“A lot of students are very financially independent at this age, willingly or not, and not being able to work adds a lot of stress and anxiety about the future,” said O’Connell. “I’m fortunate enough that if anything my dad would be okay with helping me out, but not everyone has that back up plan so it’s definitely an upsetting and difficult thing to handle.”
In the current situation, “people don’t realize who they depend on until they’re forced to look them in the face during an event like this. The pandemic has really opened people’s eyes to the fact that some of the people who make the least money are the ones that are there for everybody in the end,” said Manganelli.