A pinch of sugar, dash of spice, and lots of love — that’s what goes into every one of the over 9,200 meals that God’s Love We Deliver cooks daily.
Since 1985, the nonprofit has provided medically tailored meals to New York’s most vulnerable residents. The coronavirus, however, is causing it to change the way the non-sectarian organization and its volunteers operate.
“The coronavirus pandemic has affected absolutely everything we’re doing here at God’s Love, and we have been working since the very, very beginning to accommodate to changing protocols and new news every single day,” said Karen Pearl, the CEO of God’s Love We Deliver, in an interview with Fox News.
While the pandemic has affected how their nearly 17,000 annual volunteers correspond with their clients, the production, output and services they provide has not changed.
“When all of the businesses closed and sent everybody to work at home, we literally, in a week, lost a thousand volunteers. So, that was the first challenge.”
The second challenge, Pearl said, was to figure out how many volunteers they needed daily to cook, package and deliver their clients’ meals every day.
Keeping social distance in mind, now only about 100 volunteers are working daily to cook the medically tailored meals. In addition to the gloves and aprons they always wear, volunteers are also wearing masks to protect themselves and the food they are producing.
While keeping her staff safe is important, Pearl said their primary concern is the health and safety of the people they care for. “Our clients are among the most vulnerable people in the city. And it’s really important that we’re doing everything we can to keep them as healthy as possible.”
