Meals for frontline community heroes help for restaurants

Submitted Story
Earlier this month, the Thanks-Giving Foundation, with the support of AJC’s Community of Conscience Coalition, launched Serving Up Gratitude. This initiative was created to express appreciation for frontline health care workers and first responders while simultaneously offering support for local restaurants.
Through these efforts, individually packaged meals from local restaurants will be delivered to hundreds of ICU and ER workers. The initiative has a goal of raising at least $250,000 to benefit the restaurant industry and provide 25,000 meals to health care workers over the next 60 days.
Parkland Hospital emergency room and intensive care unit workers were the first to receive a meal delivery from Serving Up Gratitude. The project has quickly expanded to include Baylor, Texas Health Presbyterian and Medical City. Participating restaurants to date have included Blue Mesa, Woodlands Grill, Pecan Lodge, Snuffers, Ojeda’s and more.
Nominations for recipient facilities and local restaurants can be made on the Serving Up Gratitude website: https://thanksgiving.org/serving-up-gratitude/
“In these challenging times, we believe now more than ever in our organization’s [The Thanks-Giving Foundation] mission that gratitude and goodwill can strengthen our communities, which is why we created Serving Up Gratitude,” said The Thanks-Giving Foundation President and CEO Kyle Ogden. “Our hope is that Serving Up Gratitude expresses the appreciation we have for those on the frontline, supports local entrepreneurs and business owners at restaurants, and inspires others to unite in our community’s fight against COVID-19.”
AJC Community of Conscience co-chair, culinary author and TJP columnist Tina Wasserman added, “this is a wonderful way to help two very important parts of the Dallas community that are really struggling during this crisis — our health care providers and the restaurant industry. This initiative really speaks to me, as the wife of a doctor and as a culinary professional. I am so pleased that an organization I care so deeply about, AJC, and its Community of Conscience will provide real relief for the local community.”
AJC also recently launched a social media campaign, #BeAMensch, to encourage good deeds. #BeAMensch highlights acts of kindness and decency, as a nod to goodwill during the chaos and uncertainty of the (COVID-19) crisis.
AJC’s Community of Conscience is a national AJC initiative that brings together leaders from different backgrounds to make a statement against the division in today’s society and discuss proactive ways it can be resolved. The Dallas chapter launched in November, led by co-chairs Bayan Al-Fathi, interfaith leader and member of the Muslim Jewish Alliance Coalition; Juan Carlos Cerda, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program recipient and DFW business outreach manager of the Texas Business Immigration Coalition; Stefanie Schneidler, AJC Dallas board member and civic leader; Honorable Carl Sherman, Texas State Representative, District 109 and senior pastor at Church of Christ of Hutchins; and Wassermar.
To learn more information about the Community of Conscience, including where to add your name in support of promoting civility and public discourse, please visit https://global.ajc.org/take-action/community.
Community support from foundations, corporations, and individuals is needed to help Dallas’ health heroes and the local restaurants economy. Opportunities to volunteer and donate as well as suggest frontline recipients and restaurants can be found online at Thanksgiving.org/Serving-Up-Gratitude.
— Submitted by
Joel Schwitzer.