On April 3rd, the Rotary Club of Montgomery/Rocky Hill and the Montgomery Business Association teamed up to feed our front line hospital and emergency workers while also supporting small, local food establishments. The project was dubbed, “COVID-19 Support – Grab & Go Lunches for Frontline Workers.”
The program will come to an end on Friday June 19th. We made deliveries on 68 days (6 days a week) by a volunteer driver. Each delivery included at least 50 Grab & Go lunches prepared by a local food establishment. Deliveries were made to one of 3 hospital locations: RWJ Somerset, RWJ New Brunswick or Penn Medicine Plainsboro. We were also able to purchase sweet treats from a local baker and chocolatier that we included with meal deliveries and shared with Montgomery Police, Fire & EMS workers. Members of the community also donated drinks, chips, cookies to the local food establishment to include with the Grab & Go meals. Many a food establishment added extra meals as a thank you to the frontline workers. A local Girl Scout Troop provided thank you notes for hospital workers that we also delivered.
We received just under $35,000 in donations from individuals, social groups, girl scout troops, neighborhood groups, and Rotary Grants. These donations kept the project going strong for the last 2 1/2 months. It was a great way to express everyone’s gratitude to our frontline workers while helping the smaller mom & pop restaurants and delis in Montgomery and Rocky Hill keep going at the same time. A donation of $10 paid for one complete bag lunch, provided by a local business, and delivered to a local hospital.
It is bittersweet to see the program coming to an end. We can all be proud of the difference we made for small businesses in our community and for the many frontline hospital workers and emergency workers who enjoyed the meals and treats.
A special thanks to Cory Wingerter for presenting us with the idea and to Lisa Youngberg (and her family) for the hours she spent implementing and organizing the daily deliveries.