COVID-19 put health care workers and first responders under stress and restaurant workers and caterers out of work.
Jim Kennedy, Chairman of Sandy Springs-based Cox Enterprises, launched an initiative with Emory Healthcare to address both issues: Feed the Frontline.
At Kennedy’s request, the James M. Cox Foundation launched the initiative to provide free boxed meals to people working at Emory Healthcare facilities, WellStar hospitals, Piedmont Hospital, the Shepherd Center, Grady Hospital, Northside Hospital, Children’s Healthcare, the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the Atlanta Police and Fire departments.
“To leave the ICU momentarily and to be surprised with a delicious meal is a huge morale boost,” says Gaurav Budhrani, an anesthesiologist and critical care doctor at Emory University Hospital and the VA Medical Center.
Emory University contributed to the project and raised money through its Momentum crowdfunding platform. Nearly 1,500 individual donors and foundations joined the Cox initiative in giving more than $1.7 million, which paid $15 per meal to providers and kept an estimated 85 food service workers employed.
The first phase, from April 3 to May 31, served 75,900 meals. The second phase, from Aug. 5 to Sept. 18, supplied 40,453 meals, for a total of more than 116,350.
Avalon Catering, Bazati Atlanta, Bold Catering & Design/Fifth Group Restaurants, Chez Montier Cuisine, Das BBQ, Legendary Events, Local Three Kitchen & Bar and Hopkins and Co. supplied meals for both phases. Five other businesses worked only on the first phase.
“It means the world to us to help those who are remarkably selfless during this time,” Hopkins and Co. owners Linton and Gina Hopkins said in a joint statement.
coxenterprises.com/corporate-responsibility/james-m-cox-foundation
