Dear Menlo Park City Council Members and Staff, Please find attached a document outlining the long-term economic benefits of maintaining our city-run child care programs and the need to invest in these programs to ensure their health once physical-distancing requirements are lifted. While, in the short term, these programs will not pay for themselves, they are a critical part of our city's infrastructure that must be maintained in order for our community to get back to work once it is safe to do so. While an outside contractor may, under normal circumstances, be available to operate child care in city facilities, the economics of this pandemic are such that the majority of child care providers will be in crisis for the foreseeable future and would not be able to take on additional programming, let alone keep their own programs afloat. Thank you for your service to our community in these very trying times in which difficult decisions abound. Sincerely, Heather Hopkins & Dayna Chung [ http://www.communityequitycollaborative.org/uploads/3/4/3/4/34345875/published/400dpilogocropped.png?1517599576 ] Organizing Members 650.283.5112 www.communityequitycollaborative.org http://www.communityequitycollaborative.org > application/pdf attachment: Menlo_Park_Child_Care_White_Paper_.pdf
