From serious health risks to economic hardships, the impact from the COVID pandemic for our seniors, small businesses, low-income families and healthcare workers in particular has been devastating. As reality set in with how serious this was, we honestly didn’t know where to start. There was so much confusion, fear and concern in our communities. We were getting calls and emails from people that wanted to help, people that needed help and everything in between.
All we knew is that we wanted to do something. And as always, you stepped up, Niceness Nation.
After talking with our volunteers and partners it was clear the most urgent, short term need was simply food. One just one call with our amazing supporters at Randy Peters Catering & Event Center and we were able to quickly organize Project GrubHug.
Project GrubHug was our small way of helping make sure that those impacted most are not going without food. We committed to raising money for meals (and some love) to be delivered to those that needed it most:
- Seniors that are living alone or in centers where they cannot leave, do not have food or any family to help them
- Families in need who have lost their income due to layoffs or business closings
- Healthcare workers who are putting their lives at risk to help those that are sick
Partnering with Randy Peters Catering we were able to purchase and deliver each meal for just $10. Clearly given the quality of their food and service, these meals would cost a lot more to make and deliver but by subsidizing the cost, we were able to feed many more people and help keep their staff working. Not only that, but we later learned that they were adding hundreds of meals on top of this at their own cost!
This was just a great example of some of the niceness we witnessed during this project. Think about it, catering and events were some of the most directly affected industries, and yet, they were the first to step up to offer help.
It was a true testament to their values, quite moving, and gave us the boost we needed.
Inspired by their offer to support us, the Tower had recently received a $2,000 grant that had been earmarked for general Tower fundraising but the kids didn’t hesitate to make a decision to donate the entire thing to kick off the project.
With a goal to deliver 500 meals, we put the word out and you responded. In fact, not only did we reach our goal, we exceeded it by raising $7,210 from 53 donations making it our largest direct project ever. To get there we had individual donations that ranged from $25 to $700 (a big donation from Julie Eddlemon to get us to our first goal) and groups like 100+ Women Giving Circle of Placer County that came together to raise $1,625! You can see all of our generous donors on our donor wall.
We also received some great support from local media including our favorite morning show at Good Day Sacramento. They hosted the boys for a morning interview via Zoom that really helped get the word out.
We also had a great interview on the Be the Light Facebook Group that shares uplifting and inspiration stories from around the world.
In total, with your support, we were able to deliver over 700 meals to:
- Feed an the staff of an entire night shift at Kaiser Hospital in Roseville, CA
- Feed an entire low income senior home where they were worried about how to pay for their next meals
- Feed multiple homeless shelters
- Feed individual families needing help after losing their income
We wanted to note that during the entire project we stayed quarantined as did all of our volunteers. The donations were routed to Randy Peters Catering and they did all the meal preparation and delivery under strict safety guidelines. This helped keep everyone safe while still running the project during the most critical times.
So, on behalf of our entire Tower Team, and the community you continue to serve, THANK YOU. While there is much more work to do as we recover and reopen together, this was one of many examples of hope that will fuel that process.
Thank you for your niceness.
