Feed the Heroes in Ireland has delivered more than 100,000 meals to healthcare workers and other frontline workers over the last six weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Feed the Heroes was set up in response to the outbreak of COVID-19 in Ireland as a way to show appreciation to frontline staff and to boost morale.
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The fund has captured the public's imagination and it is now delivering around 22,000 meals per week to hospital staff around the country.
More than 18,000 people have donated a combined total of €1,066,290 to Feed the Heroes in the six-week period since the project began.
Roughly 300 Irish restaurants and food companies are supplying meals to healthcare workers around the country through the fund.
Cian O'Flaherty, founder of Feed the Heroes, said that the fund had become a national movement and that he wanted to continue delivering food so long as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to grip the country.
"To date, we have spent over €600,000 of the fund, delivering over 100,000 meals. We would like to thank everyone who has donated, what started as an idea a few weeks ago is now a nationwide operation.
"We want to be here as long as is necessary, every donation will allow us to keep providing this service to the critical frontline workers for a day longer in this emergency."
Feed the Heroes has delivered more than 10,000 meals to the National Ambulance Service (NAS) alone.
NAS crews are spending more time on the road and find themselves under enormous pressure during the COVID-19 crisis.
Our #NationalAmbulanceService heroes are even busier after last week it was announced that all nursing homes and other care centres would be prioritised - thank you #gourmetfoodparlour for feeding the team on call this weekend!
Thank you for #fuellingthefrontline 💚 pic.twitter.com/sOFQJwc7vW
— feedtheheroes (@feedtheheroes1) April 18, 2020
Crews often have to spend more time on each individual house call due to COVID-19 infection control and Feed the Heroes is trying to ease that pressure and stress by providing nutritious meals.
The fund is providing free meals to NAS staff in emergency control rooms in Dublin and Donegal in addition to field operations across the country.
The NAS's Richard Quinlan thanked both the Irish Public and Feed the Heroes for their generous donations during the pandemic.
"Thank you, this is much appreciated each and every day. NAS staff, Military staff and HSE staff out on sites getting hot food is important for wellbeing and service support. Again, thank you all so much."
You can learn more about Feed The Heroes on its website and Facebook.
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