“A plate of food is much more than food,” says Chef Jose Andres, the founder of World Kitchen, a non-profit that provides meals during natural disasters.”
Like Andres, CHI St. Joseph Children’s Health director Phil Goropoulos believes supplying the community with food during hard times, sends a message to people that they are not alone. It becomes a beacon of hope that someone cares.
CHI created the Healthy Columbia Crisis Meals to provide nutritious food to families in Columbia, Lancaster County.
Since the initiative began March 17, CHI has provided thousands of meals, six days a week, to hungry families. They even delivered on Easter Sunday.
“During the past few distributions, all 150 meal sets were provided in less than 30 minutes,” said Goropoulos. “Sadly, we had to turn away some individuals and families. The community need is great and ensuring residents and families have at least one healthy meal each day is essential.”
The Healthy Columbia Crisis Meals program will continue to serve meal sets through the COVID-19 crisis. The meal sets include five meals, fruit and snacks per household member for 200 individuals each distribution day.
But the need for meals is outstripping CHI’s ability to provide for so many. If you feel that you can help the meal effort, please contact CHI and provide a donation at https://stjosephchildrenshealth.org/donate/
“In a time when many of us feel powerless, we do have the power to help,” noted Goropoulos. “You can feed a community by helping to make Healthy Columbia Crisis Meals possible.”
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