Metro Roundup: Meals for Healthcare Heroes helps frontline caregivers, local eateries

Thanks to three Mountain Brook residents, there’s an easy way to go online and offer a boost in morale to Birmingham health care workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic and provide financial support to local restaurants seeking to survive in these days of social distancing.

Long-time friends 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.

“These are approximate numbers, but we think we have passed 3,000 meals provided and more than $50,000 raised,” Andrews told Village Living at press time.

Organizers rely solely on locally owned and operated restaurants, said Andrews, an attorney.

Here’s how the program works:

• A team leader at a local hospital makes a request at the Meals for Healthcare Heroes webpage 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 signs up and promises to pay for the meal.

Demand from health care facilities and restaurants continues to be “huge,” Andrews said.

“We are still looking for sponsors,” said Will Baker, a commercial real estate executive. “We will keep it going as long as we can and as long as there is a continued need.”

Hospitals that have requested meals include St. Vincents, UAB, Children’s of Alabama and Brookwood Baptist Hospital.

To sponsor a meal, go to Meals for Healthcare Heroes at signupgenius.com.

To make an individual donation of any size, go to acjf.org, click on “Donate Now” and select “Meals for Healthcare Workers.”