Photo by Erin Nelson.
Jill Utley, a registered nurse and operation team leader, helps Will Baker of the Meals for Healthcare Heroes campaign, unload bags of lunches from Blueroot Company for health care staff on the pre-op and recovery team at UAB’s main hospital on May 13.
Thanks to three Mountain Brook residents, there’s an easy way online for people in the Birmingham area to offer a boost in morale to healthcare workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic and financial support to local restaurants seeking to survive in these days of social distancing.
Long-time friends and Mountain Brook High School graduates Rip Andrews and Will Baker — along with Baker’s wife, Susannah Baker — started a program in March called Meals for Healthcare Heroes that addresses both of those critical needs, while giving community members a chance to make a positive impact without leaving home.
And the organizers said they have a continuing need for new sponsors to help sustain the initiative, which has been a success so far.
“These are approximate numbers, but we think we have passed 3,000 meals provided and more than $50,000 raised,” Andrews told Village Living before press time.
Here’s how the program works:
- A team leader at a local hospital or clinic makes a request at the Meals for Healthcare Heroes web page for a specific number of meals to be delivered at a certain date and time.
- The organizers find a local restaurant that can supply the meals and post the restaurant’s name and the meal’s total cost on the site.
- A sponsor then signs up and promises to pay for the meal.
“The biggest problem is spreading the word,” said Andrews, who works as an attorney at Marsh, Rickard & Bryan in Birmingham. “When people hear about it, we get an uptick in sponsorship.”
Demand from health care facilities and restaurants continues to be “huge,” he said.
Running the program “has really been very gratifying,” said Will Baker, who works in commercial real estate at Walker & Dunlop.
Susannah Baker helped get the program off the ground by setting up a webpage at signupgenius.com, and she and her husband handle much of the day-to-day coordination of the program.
“It’s certainly nice to be able to do something to help when we are in an unusual, unique situation and are not able to do our normal day-to-day things,” Susannah Baker said.
“If you are friends with anybody on the frontlines of health care right now ... their lives are very difficult, and it is hard for them to find good meals,” Andrews said.
Several participating restaurants, including Ollie Irene, Taco Mama, Over Easy and Watkin’s Branch Bourbon and Brasserie are located in Mountain Brook.
Organizers rely solely on locally owned and operated restaurants, Andrews said.
Hospitals that have requested meals include St. Vincents, multiple UAB facilities, Children’s of Alabama and Brookwood Baptist Hospital.
Chef J.P. Holland of Watkin’s Branch said he’s grateful for the additional revenue that Meals for Healthcare Heroes has provided his eatery.
“Honestly, with Watkins Branch only being open three months before all this hit, it’s been our lifeline,” he said. “It’s 100% been the difference between paying the bills and paying people and not.”
He praised the organizers of the program, who he said do not charge any fees to the health care providers or the restaurants.
“They helped out two industries that are not their own,” Holland said. “It was truly the most selfless thing I have seen since the start of this pandemic.”
The organizers are unsure of how long the program will continue.
“We are still looking for sponsors,” Will Baker said. “We will keep it going as long as we can and as long as there is a continued need.”
“Right now it’s chugging along and is busy, and we are grateful for that,” Susannah Baker said.
To sponsor a meal, go to Meals for Healthcare Heroes at signupgenius.com. People can also make individual donations of any size. To do so, go to the Alabama Civil Justice Foundation website at acjf.org, click on “Donate Now” and select “Meals for Healthcare Workers.”
