Sinclair has been delivering boxed lunches to hundreds of healthcare workers in the area.
“We certainly appreciate the work of our frontline healthcare workers…that help ensure a safe environment for everybody,” said Sinclair’s administration vice president, Jeffrey Miller. “We have a lot of healthcare students here that are…going out to be those healthcare workers in the future. Since we, unfortunately, don’t have a lot of students on campus, our food service operations here have a lot of capacity since we’re not serving thousands of students a day. We thought this might be an opportunity for us to use that capacity that we have to serve healthcare workers.”
The boxed lunches typically contain various wraps, chips, water and a type of dessert. The meals are prepared by Aramark, who normally serves the food to those at Sinclair.
Planning began this past December, and deliveries started the week of Jan. 11. Lunches are currently distributed to four different hospitals. Lunches are taken to the Miami Valley Hospital in the downtown area on Tuesdays and to Miami Valley North on Wednesdays. Miami Valley South receives meals on Thursdays and the Soin Medical Center does so on Fridays. More stops may be added, eventually.
“We’re delivering roughly 150 boxed lunches a day when we go to those facilities,” said Miller. “We don’t have a hard stop date at the moment. We’ve probably delivered about 3,000 lunches so far with this program.”
Miller explained that healthcare workers often do not have sufficient time to get a meal. Changing out of their PPE and leaving their floor can be quite time consuming.
“We have lunches that are…ready to go and… [they] can kind…quickly have those and then read a nice note from somebody and then get back…[to]… the great work that they’re doing,” said Miller.
Some of Sinclair’s employees have hand-written notes of appreciation and encouragement that are placed inside the lunches for the healthcare workers.
“They’re very appreciative of getting lunches,” said Miller. “It’s rewarding for us as well to be part of it.”
If students would like to provide notes for the lunches, they can contact Miller’s office at 937-512-3889.
Rebekah Davidson
Intern