MISSOULA — We are well over 18 months into the COVID-19 pandemic and frontline workers are continuing to press on.
They may be tired and overworked, but if Hannah Lewis and her team of volunteers have anything to do with it, these frontline workers won’t go hungry.
“We heard through the grapevine, we had some friends who work at the hospital in different departments, saying that our healthcare workers were frustrated and felt depleted, tired, exhausted, and just kind of left behind,” said Lewis.
“Our community heroes need us now more than ever,” wrote Lewis and co-organizers Caitlin Thompson and Kim Shappee in a GoFundMe campaign two weeks ago.
She set a goal of $1,500 and began making calls to the hospital and local restaurants.
“Tom at Five on Black donated and gave us a 50% discount, Laura at Soup Farm did a whole donation of 50 cookies, and so the community is just really coming forward. We asked them to step up and they have.” - Hannah Lewis
Four deliveries to St. Patrick Hospital later, Lewis and her team have given breakfast, lunch, and dinner to those in the trenches.
“There was a lot of back and forth as far as planning,” Lewis told MTN News, “When meals should come and how many, and there was definitely some COVID protocol that we had to follow.”
While those outside the walls of medical centers carry on and enjoy simple, normal moments like family dinners, those inside power through for the rest of us.
Lewis hopes to offer a bit of normalcy for them too. “I just think it's important to reach out and do what you can where you can.”
Donors have already surpassed their fundraising goal of $1,500, but Lewis told MTN News that as long as the donations keep coming, she’ll continue making deliveries.
You can donate to the cause here.
