With masks, money and empanadas, Triangle residents support area hospital workers
When word went out a few weeks ago that Triangle health care workers needed gloves, masks and other protective equipment, so many donations poured in that hospitals had to set up special drop-off sites.
The personal protective equipment continues to arrive. But now people are as likely to show support and appreciation for doctors, nurses and others involved in the fight against COVID-19 with pizzas, chicken kabobs or mini-donuts made fresh in the hospital parking lot.
Families, organizations and restaurants in the Triangle are donating food and meals to employees at area hospitals as they brace for a surge in COVID-19 patients. Several restaurants and other organizations have enlisted the help of the public, through GoFundMe or other campaigns.
If you order a dozen empanadas from Makus Empanadas, they’ll give you another dozen free to give to someone in need or the “healthcare professionals on the front lines battling every day.”
Dr. Jonathan Bae, who is helping coordinate and distribute donations to Duke Health, said people want to give something tangible, but the meaning of a box of sandwiches or burritos is also symbolic.
“How powerful it is to say you’re supporting the well-being of some of our most critical resources right now through the simple kindness of a meal,” Bae said in an interview. “There are some dark days thinking about what’s coming, and to feel that support from the community adds a little bit of light to that darkness.”
Donations of food, masks and blood
Generosity in the face of the pandemic has taken many forms. People are donating to food banks, making masks for first responders and giving blood. Just the act of ordering takeout can feel like a gesture of support for a favorite restaurant.
Hospitals, at the forefront in the battle with coronavirus, say they have benefited greatly from people’s desires to help. Inspired by media coverage from places where the outbreak has hit hardest, and by pleas from the hospitals themselves, people have donated items health care workers need most: personal protective equipment or PPE.
The sources of the donations are too numerous to list. Families have given a handful of N95 respirator masks from their garages, while businesses have dipped into their supply closets. Wake Tech Community College donated 74,000 gloves, 3,000 masks and hundreds of bottles of hand sanitizer to Duke, WakeMed, UNC Rex and Transitions Lifecare hospice center. (Wake Tech has also loaned its only ventilator, purchased for its EMS program, to WakeMed.)
Members of the Chinese-American Friendship Association of North Carolina, based in Cary, have donated more than 30,000 masks and thousands of face shields to hospitals, local government agencies and police and fire departments in the Triangle. The association says it expects to donate another 60,000 masks this week, including some to senior centers.
Duke Health alone has received about a half million donated masks, gowns, face shields and other items to protect health care workers, said Bae, the associate chief medical officer for patient safety and clinical quality.
Last week, Duke highlighted a donation from Cree, the Durham-based company that makes LED lights and semiconductors, which gave 20,000 N95 respirator masks to the hospital. The company had bought the masks in China for workers at its manufacturing plant in Guangdong, then realized they weren’t what workers needed and had them shipped to Durham, said CEO Gregg Lowe.
“In these times that are kind of troubling for a lot of people, I find it inspiring to see everyone coming together for a common cause and really helping those who are really helping us,” Lowe said in a video conference call with Dr. Thomas Owens, president of Duke University Hospital. “Your team at Duke is certainly at the front line of the epidemic,” Lowe told Owens, “and keeping your folks safe is going to help keep everybody else safe.”
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Donations from students’ parents
Duke Health also received about 2,000 N95 masks from about 130 parents of Duke University students who live primarily in China, Bae said. The parents pooled their money to buy the masks, then sent another $18,000 to Duke Health’s COVID-19 Care Support Fund, for staff wellness and to purchase more PPE.
The coronavirus outbreak has inspired an uptick in cash donations to hospitals and their foundations. UNC Health received $500,000 from Food Lion for coronavirus-related research, and donors have given $745,000 to the WakeMed Foundation for COVID-19. WakeMed has used the money in part to expand coronavirus testing and the use of telemedicine and to support employees, according to spokeswoman Kristin Kelly.
Sometimes the donations come from unlikely sources. WakeMed has received hundreds of face shields made with 3D printers at N.C. State University’s Center for Additive Manufacturing and Logistics. It also got more than 100 gallons of hand sanitizer produced by biotech companies MedPharm and Avazyme and the distillery that makes Bedlam Vodka.
Restaurants, forced to close except for carry-out and delivery, have redeployed their kitchens and staffs to provide meals for hospital workers. First Watch, the breakfast and lunch chain that recently opened a restaurant on Lake Boone Trail near Rex, is bringing 700 meals to nurses, doctors and others this week, according to hospital spokesman Alan Wolf, while Ruth’s Chris Steak House is scheduled to bring 150 lunches Thursday.
On Sunday, Neomonde delivered hundreds of Easter meals to health care workers at WakeMed and Rex, using more than $6,000 raised through a GoFundMe page.
Feed the Fight fundraising pages
“We continue to be amazed and inspired by the outpouring of heartwarming support for our hospital employees,” Wolf said in a written statement. “It not only nourishes them during a stressful time, but lifts their spirits as they fight this virus on the front line.”
GoFundMe pages called Feed the Fight Chapel Hill and Feed the Fight Durham NC have raised about $55,000 between them to deliver meals to workers at Duke Health, Durham VA Health Care and UNC Health. Organizers of both campaigns say they have two goals: to show appreciation and boost morale for health care workers and to support local restaurants.
That’s the same goal of a campaign called Feeding the Soul, organized by the foundation of the N.C. Healthcare Association, the industry group representing all 130 hospitals in the state. As of Tuesday morning, people had donated more than $60,000, enough to provide nearly 5,200 meals from restaurants such as Panciuto, Capital Club 16, Trophy Brewing and several owned by chef Ashley Christensen.
Kate Bice began a fundraising page on Meal Time intending to send brownies and other snacks to UNC’s Medical Intensive Care Unit in Chapel Hill where her husband Tom works.
But Bice soon found people wanted to donate pizzas and entire meals. Since March 26, the site has raised more than $14,000, enough for Bice to deliver 100 meals a day from area restaurants for the day and night shifts at the ICU (she drops them off at the loading dock to avoid contact with any of the health care workers.)
Bice said the meals are good for morale. But she says there are also practical benefits to having food brought to where nurses and doctors are putting in long hours.
“There are choices that they make at the end of a 12-hour shift: ‘Do I eat or do I go to bed?’” Bice said. “Sleeping largely wins out.”
This story was originally published April 14, 2020 at 2:26 PM with the headline "With masks, money and empanadas, Triangle residents support area hospital workers."
