Delivery to frontline workers (via GoFundMe page)
April 16, 2020 By Michael Dorgan
A Queens-based soccer organization has joined forces with the Chamber of Commerce to help raise funds to provide frontline hospital workers with meals during the COVID-19 crisis.
Queensboro FC, a newly formed professional soccer team, has teamed up with the Queens Chamber of Commerce to expand on a local program that pays restaurants to cook meals and deliver them to healthcare professionals and first responders.
The campaign, Food for the Fearless, was started on March 28 by Mark Boccia Jr., who is studying to become a physician assistant, and his father Mark Sr., the owner of three popular restaurants in Queens, according to the New York Post.
The campaign has already delivered over 2,000 meals to various hospitals, police precincts, fire stations and other facilities throughout Queens. Some of the locations to receive meals include Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, North Shore University Hospital and Flushing Hospital Medical Center as well as the 109th and 111th police precincts.
Queensboro FC and the Queens Chamber of Commerce have come on board to help raise cash and are appealing to people and businesses within their networks to contribute funds.
Organizers surpassed the group’s initial fundraising goal of $50,000 and have now set a new donation target of $100,000, according to its GoFundMe page.
The campaign said that every $1,000 raised will translate into providing up to one hundred meals to frontline workers.
This will cover the cost of making meals at Boccia’s three restaurants in Queens; Bourbon Street and one Station Plaza in Bayside and Austin’s Ale House in Kew Gardens. These meals will then be delivered to locations where frontline staff are working during the pandemic.
To date, the campaign has raised over $72,000 through its GoFundMe page and contributions can also be received by contacting the group via email FoodForTheFearless@gmail.com.
