Across the nation, people are joining together to bring much-needed sustenance to the brave (and hungry!) frontline workers and others in need who have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Not only do these efforts bring relief to those who need it most, but they also support small businesses—including restaurants and food trucks—who also feel the pain of this difficult time.
Here are just a few of the commendable actions we’ve seen lifting spirits from coast to coast:
The Major League Soccer team Philadelphia Union partnered with Captain Morgan to kick-off “Fight for Philly” in Chester, Philadelphia. The club is distributing thousands of meals and PPE supplies to frontline workers and the vulnerable weekly, in addition to supporting the community with video calls, birthday wishes, and outreach to loyal fans.
The Boston-based burger chain Wahlburgers—owned by brothers Paul, Mark and Donnie—have partnered with Crescent City Capital to bring warm meals to first responders, medical workers, and other frontline heroes since early May. The #WhateverYouNeed initiative incorporates their brick and mortar stores as well as food trucks to provide 30,000 meals across the United States and Canada.
In Colorado Springs, COSILOVEYOU is working with multiple non-profits, local churches, and businesses to deliver medication, food, and other essential supplies to those in need. In Arizona, family-owned restaurant Somburros gave away 5,000 meals to frontline workers and families in need. Nonprofits such as Frontline Foods and Off Their Plate have teamed up with restaurants nationwide for massive undertakings like raising $9M to serve 800,000 meals.
The list of examples like these is long. We want you to know that Off the Grid continues our active participation in bringing together our network of food Creators and local organizations in the fight against coronavirus.
Here is a brief summary of what our team at Off the Grid has accomplished thus far:
– Great Plates Delivered SF is delivering three free restaurant meals a day to older adults in San Francisco who are at heightened risk due to COVID-19 and are unable to obtain or prepare meals on their own while sheltering in place. Off the Grid has delivered over 22K meals while supporting twenty-one food Creators and numerous local restaurants to meet their need of additional revenue sources. These numbers continue to grow.
– We’ve implemented enhanced sanitary practices with all of our Creators and transformed our community and lunch markets into grab and go set-ups. It’s a good time to Keep Calm & Carry Out.
– We fundraised $15,775 (including our $5k match) which allowed our mobile Creators to serve 1,600 meals to grocery store employees at 10 locations.
– We partnered with the City of San Francisco to feed those who tested positive for COVID-19 and did not have access to food preparation facilities. Our mobile business delivered over 22,700 meals throughout the program.
– Over two days 6,200 frontline workers received meals from 22 of our third-party small businesses at two Zuckerberg SF General Hospital locations in a partnership with the ZSFG COVID-19 Fund.
To learn more about how you can help support our Creators, frontline workers, and those in need due to the COVID-19 pandemic, please contact us here.
