Restaurants and other groups have organized to feed the frontline NYC health and medical workers and emergency service workers during their extra-long hours of saving our lives nd keeping us safe in these stressful days.
You can support the effort with donations, or your business for take-out or delivery. Especially donations.
Here’s an NYCOTC shout-out, and how you can help our frontline heroes.
World Central Kitchen
World Central Kitchen is Chef José Andrés’s food relief program provides FREE meals to individuals in need in the wake of disasters, from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico to Covid-19 in New York City.
In addition to serving frontline workers, World Central Kitchen employs out-of-work restaurant workers to prepare and deliver the meals.
Check this map to find local restaurants offering support.
Two examples:
Partner Luke’s Lobster, for instance, lets you call to order a lobster roll at 25% off, and have it delivered to a health care worker.
Palestinian food activist and chef Nasser Jaber is the founder of The Migrant Kitchen, is delivering 1000 free meals a day to healthcare workers at Bellevue Hospital Center, Lenox Hill Hospital, and Memorial Sloan Kettering and families in need.
- Donate to their relief fund which also supports Brooklyn catering company Bartleby & Sage, which is helping prepare the meals.
The salad chain Sweetgreen is donating 100-thousand FREE healthy meals through World Central Kitchen to frontline healthcare workers.
All donations are 100% tax-deductible. And all of the money will be used for food labor and delivery.
But the best way to support their efforts is to donate to the World Central Kitchen nationwide food relief fund here.
Andrés’ World Central Kitchen has distributed more than 15 million meals to people in need since its founding in 2010. Andrés’ was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the organization’s efforts in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria.
Feed the Frontlines NYC
When Tarallucci e Vino owner Luca Di Pietro had to close his five Manhattan cafes for dine-in customers and lay off 90 employees, a friend showed support by purchasing 40 meals with the request that he deliver it to a nearby ER.
That first delivery became the basis for this NYC service which now employs 30 laid-off restaurant workers and which has delivered nearly 60,000 meals to staffs at more than 20 hospitals, including the epicenter of the epicenter, Elmhurst Hospital.
Donate to the fund to help supply meals and support staff from all of these restaurants.
New York Presbyterian
Students at Cornell and Columbia Universities’ medical schools are raising money to feed health care workers across the city.
They have delivered more than 10,000 meals from dozens of restaurants so far and are hoping to deliver 22,000 meals in the next two weeks.
Girl Scouts of Greater New York
The Girl Scouts have already donated 40,000 boxes to the city’s NYC Health and Hospital employees, and is hoping to donate 100,000 boxes.
Buy Girl Scout cookies to help support the frontline donation program.
Katz’s Delicatessen
The most famous Jewish deli in the world is delivering hundreds of meals every day to different hospitals across the city.
Contribute $20 to provide a health care worker a classic pastrami or turkey half-sandwich, a side of coleslaw or potato salad and house-cured pickles.
The $20 covers the direct food costs, preparation, staff labor, and packaging materials associated with each meal. You are probably spending more than that on your take-out or delivered sushi.
During World War II, Katz’s encouraged New Yorkers to ‘Send A Salami To Your Boy In The Army’, as a means to offer the comforts of home to our armed forces in times of crisis.
Th slogan has remained a part of Katz’s culture, and it has been revised today to send a meal to a frontline worker.
Please partronize the NYC restaurants helping to feed the front line heroes.
These additional restaurants and groups organizing bento boxes, pizzas, rice bowls and more, and all are accepting donations to ramp up their efforts, published on NY Eater:
Subway
The sandwich chain is now delivering groceries along with Footlong subs.
And when you order online, you can add a FREE sub for a first responder.
You can also donate a sub without placing a grocery order.
Just add as many “First Responder Subs” as you’d like to your cart and we’ll deliver them to local doctors, nurses, police, fire, and EMTs in your area as a “thank you” for everything they are doing for us!
In no particular order:
This volunteer effort places orders with pizzerias like Mama’s Too, Joe’s Pizza, Prince Street Pizza, L&B Spumoni Gardens, and then delivers them to local hospitals.
The UES artisanal market is raising funds to send thousands of sandwiches to health care workers at Lenox Hill hospital, Metropolitan Hospital, and New York Presbyterian Hospital.
The East Village macaroni and cheese destination is asking donors to purchase a gift card online and then forward that email to catering@eatsmac.com, so the restaurant can use those funds to feed health care workers.
The East Harlem Mediterranean restaurant Barcha has been donating meals to hospital workers and is accepting donations through Venmo and Paypal to keep going.
Taiwanese restaurant 886 is working with Ho Foods and Raku to deliver bento boxes to more than a dozen hospitals. The group of East Village restaurants have already delivered more than a thousand meals.
Australian cafe, which has three locations in NYC, has raised more than $50,000 of a $75,000 goal to feed health care workers across the city. The restaurant has been preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a group of hospitals in Manhattan and plans to deliver 700 each week.
Bushwick sandwich spot the Wheelhouse along with sister restaurant Millie’s Cuban Cafe are raising money to feed hospital workers in Brooklyn. So far, the restaurant has raised just over $1,600 of its $5,000 goal.
Bushwick cocktail bar the Deep End is delivering up to 200 meals a day to workers at Brooklyn Hospital and Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. The restaurant’s fundraising effort has generated a little over $9,000 so far, with plans to reach $25,000.
The cult-favorite doughnut shop has launched an effort called Frontline Sweet Support which funds boxes of doughnuts sent to hospitals across the city.
Part of a nationwide fundraising effort to send pizzas to health care workers, this Brooklyn pizzeria has already delivered hundreds of pies to hospitals in the borough.
Chef JJ Johnson’s Harlem rice bowl restaurant is raising funds to feed its health care workers and pay its staff.
This coffee mini-chain is raising money to send coffee to health care workers as part of an effort called Fuel the Frontlines.
LES Vietnamese restaurant Saigon Social has served more than 500 meals to hospital workers and is continuing to raise funds through a broader effort called Frontline Foods.
East Village Korean spot Gomi is accepting donations through its Venmo account @GomiNYC to feed hospital staff. The restaurant plans to donate 1,000 meals.
The dumpling spot has already served 1,600 meals to hospital workers and is continuing to raise funds to feed more.
Adda:
Popular Long Island City Indian restaurant Adda is part of a larger fundraising effort called Off Their Plate that has donated more than 43,000 meals to hospital staff so far.
The Jackson Heights restaurant is making meals for Queens Together.
The Soho Chinese restaurant is part of the larger Feeding the Frontline initiative and has donated meals to four different hospitals in the city so far.
The famous chef and his eponymous restaurant have partnered with other Tribeca restaurants like Khe-Yo, Aneja, and Zuckers to raise funds for a handful of Manhattan hospitals.
East Village slice shop Sauce has already donated more than 3,000 pizzas to 40 hospitals in the city since March 18, and is raising funds to continue to do more runs.
The NYC Italian chain started the Feed the Frontlines initiative which has raised more than $700,000 so far and served nearly 15,000 meals to health care workers around the city.
Chinese fast-casual restaurant Junzi has partnered with the New York Presbyterian network of hospitals to feed health care workers. Every $10 donated by customers goes toward one meal for hospital staff.
The chicken-centric fast-casual spot has donated more than 750 meals to the city’s hospitals so far and has started a fundraising effort called Birds for Good to feed more.
Antoni Porowski’s health food restaurant has donated 200 meals so far and has generated enough funds to donate 2,000. The restaurant is continuing its fundraising effort.
East Village Tsukemen Ramen spot TabeTomo is part of an effort called Feed Your Hospital that has raised more than $20,000 so far is donating meals to paramedics, EMTS, and volunteer health care workers among others.
Mini-chain Sophie’s has raised more than $8,000 toward its $30,000 goal of feeding health care workers across the city.
The poke bowl restaurant has donated 210 bowls to hospitals so far and is raising funds to donate more.
The Japanese restaurant is accepting funds on venmo to send boxes of curry to health care workers.
Park Slope residents have been sending money this local bagel shop so health care workers stopping by can have a free meal.
Is your neighborhood restaurant participating in feeding the frontlines?
Add it to the comments below.
Visit nyc.gov/helpnow to find safe volunteer opportunities.
What do you think about this? We welcome your comments.