We’re now Frontline Foods, in partnership with World Central Kitchen

I hope you’ll dream with us as we envision a world where there is always a warm meal, an encouraging word, and a helping hand in hard times. — Jose Andres

A little over two weeks ago, Frank Barbieri and I were texting. He had been talking to our mutual friend, Sydney Gressel, a RN at the Emergency Department at UCSF Mission Bay. Things were starting to heat up in San Francisco, a lockdown was imminent, and he asked her “how can we help?”. She responded with a simple message — “pizza”.

What we didn’t know at the time was that there were hundreds of people in cities across the country having nearly the same conversation. We connected with this growing army of volunteers and seemingly overnight enabled a network of organizers, now 185 strong across a dozen cities, to share resources and maximize our impact around a simple mission: Help support hospital workers and save our ailing restaurant industry at the same time.

We’ve formalized that federation of organizers now under the banner of Frontline Foods, and we’re announcing a partnership today with World Central Kitchen, an international nonprofit relief organization led by chef José Andrés whose mission is to use the power of food to heal and strengthen communities in times of crisis and beyond.

With medical professionals working 16 hours a day or more, and no time at home to make meals, hospital cafeterias running short on staff and restaurants surrounding hospitals now closed, clinicians need easier access to food so they can be their best when it comes time to keep us all safe from this clear and present threat. At the same time, our friends in the restaurant industry have been devastated by shelter-in-place orders, having their livelihoods taken from them — forcing them to suddenly and jarringly shut down. Bringing these two needs together has now lifted communities across the country searching for a way to help.

We are in awe of how quickly this desire to help coalesced into a national movement. We’ve been adding about one city a day to the program. We have a Slack workspace where volunteers pour in daily and raise their hands to help with skills as diverse as graphic design, software engineering, community organizing, nursing, fundraising, executive management, writing, hospitality, internal tools, 501c3s, and more. The most powerful thing we’ve realized is everyone is in this to help. Clinicians, chefs, donors and now our organizers. During this time of profound uncertainty, we have been heartened by the community’s need to come together and rise to the immense challenge in front of us all.

In this short time, this group has come together to put desire to action and has already raised more than $700,000 nationwide, delivered 7,500 meals to 18 hospitals while supporting 100 restaurants.

While we are amazed by this fast start, we know we are facing an unprecedented crisis and we are fortunate to be joining forces with the incredible team at WCK — the world’s “Food First Responders”. Nobody works as hard on food relief as WCK. They spearheaded the “Plow To Paste” program serving 4 million meals in Puerto Rico and recently provided food for stricken passengers of the Grand Princess cruise ship when it docked in Oakland.

We’re now working with WCK to scale up the national network of COVID “food first responders”, and WCK will give us access to its experienced operations team and 501(c)3 status.

To commemorate this expansion in scope, we have re-branded under Frontline Foods on our Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and have launched a national constellation of websites for cities under the Frontline Foods umbrella.

When you donate to Frontline Foods, 100% of your donation goes to restaurants providing meals for hospital workers. We foresee demand for hospital meals and demand from restaurants only increasing in the coming weeks and months, and every dollar you donate will go directly to our programs.

We are also launching our national donation-matching program this week with a $200,000 matching grant from generous donors, so your money will be pulling double its weight in pizza (and other delicious meals).

If you haven’t already, please consider donating today.

Thank you for your support and thank you to all the volunteers who have banded together to jump into the breach. But most importantly, thank you to our frontline healthcare workers fighting every day to keep us safe and to our restaurant industry who is fighting for survival.

We didn’t anticipate being in this fight, but now that we are, it’s comforting to know that we’ve got a food first responder army by our side.

With gratitude,

Ryan and the whole Frontline Foods team