LAS VEGAS, NV (KXNT) - Clark County Commission Chairman Marilyn Kirkpatrick and community partners have launched a pilot called Delivering with Dignity to bring high-quality meals directly to the most vulnerable families in the Las Vegas Valley, keeping them and the community safe by reducing the risk of exposure to COVID-19.
The Delivering with Dignity service is intended for people struggling with poverty on a daily basis who are most at risk according to U.S. Center for Disease Control guidelines for contracting coronavirus if they leave their homes. That includes the elderly, those with underlying medical conditions and their family members living in the same household.
Organizers say potentially tens of thousands of local residents could fall within those guidelines, and they are working with nonprofit organizations in the community to identify and provide service to the entire population in-need in the Las Vegas Valley. Financial donations to Delivering with Dignity are being accepted at moonridgefoundation.org. Inquires about volunteering for the program or service requests are being directed to the United Way of Southern Nevada at (702) 892-2300.
To launch the pilot program, Commissioner Kirkpatrick partnered with the Elaine P. Wynn and Family Foundation; Healthcare Partners Nevada - Intermountain Healthcare; The Moonridge Foundation; Blau and Associates; Honey Salt Restaurant in Rampart Commons and Buddy V’s restaurant at the Venetian; Foster Kinship, a Las Vegas-based nonprofit that supports relatives and close family friends raising children who are unable to live safely with their parents; and Copia, a for-profit technology company that intelligently redistributes highly perishable excess food from businesses and restaurants directly to nonprofits most in need of food.
Chefs at Honey Salt prepared 800 meals to be ‘delivered with dignity’ to the homes of nearly 100 of the most vulnerable families identified by Foster Kinship. Many of the meals delivered on Monday with the help of seven volunteer drivers were taken to households headed by senior citizens raising their grandchildren.
“Each family will receive two meals serving a family of four, or a total of eight people. These aren’t your average PB&J or turkey-sandwich type of meals. These are meals prepared by the culinary chefs from Honey Salt’s kitchen. The restaurant is generously providing these meals at a reduced rate with private donations helping to cover the cost of ingredients, production, and distribution,” said Julie Murray, president of The Moonridge Foundation and Co-Founder of Three-Square.
Copia’s logistics and food matching technology allows the meals to remain fresh by providing drivers with the most efficient route to drop-off food to vulnerable families closest in proximity. Delivering with Dignity debuts with Copia in Las Vegas. As part of this pilot initiative, Copia reengineered their technology to provide food directly to individual families in need instead of redistributing it to shelters or food pantries that serve larger populations.