During the COVID crisis, CareHealth is providing meals to healthcare professionals across Birmingham. By utilizing local restaurants as their food providers, CareHealth is pouring resources back into the Birmingham small business community. CareHealth is an initiative of Urban Avenues and we love having Madison Kerns, Director of Operations at Urban Avenues, as part of the Forge community! Read on for our Q&A about how they are serving Birmingham during this pandemic!
How did you get the inspiration for the idea?
Our venture Five Loaves is focused on uniting communities through food, so we’ve always had a heart for the restaurant community in this city. While we were trying to think of ways to support our friends in the industry, we were seeing groups in cities like San Francisco and New York feeding healthcare teams with food from local restaurants.
We hit the ground running, formed the idea into a model that worked well for our organization, and worked with restaurant owners and healthcare professionals to make sure we had a system that prioritized safety and maximized our impact. In two days, we had a full list of restaurant partners, a website, and team of volunteer drivers!
What kind of response have you gotten from the healthcare community, local restaurant owners and donors about your efforts?
The response has been so overwhelmingly positive. The community has been incredibly supportive and are truly the only reason we can do what we do. They’re eager to serve Birmingham while maintaining safety, and CareHealth has created an easy way to do both.
Healthcare teams are sending thank you emails, photos, and cards daily. They’re feeling the support of the community and have expressed how it fuels them to face COVID-19 every day. Our restaurant partners have been wonderful throughout this entire pandemic!
It’s a difficult time for their industry, but their main focus has been giving back to the healthcare teams. It’s such an honor to support them and create a space for them to serve the healthcare communities.
So far, how many meals have been served? And how many departments have received food?
We’ve served over 2,500 meals across 65 departments thus far! We’re working over 15 hospitals and healthcare facilities across the Greater Birmingham Area to deliver meals to their teams and show the community’s support.
How long do you think the CareHealth initiative will last? Do you plan to continue the efforts post COVID?
Even as we hear plans to reopen states, we are still, unfortunately, far from normal. CareHealth was created to be a community response for those fighting COVID-19, and we plan to follow through on that mission until it is no longer needed. We’re open to the possibility that our model may change in the coming months to include other types of first responders and are beginning to plan for potential shifts in how we operate. Until then, we’re excited to increase our meals served each week!
We love seeing members of the Forge community out serving Birmingham- especially during a time like this!