The Covid-19 pandemic has put unprecedented strain on both health services and restaurants among others. But a Mexico City restaurant manager has found a way to support both health workers on the front lines and save the jobs his business has created.

Rodrigo Puchet and the staff at the restaurants Parrilla Paraíso, Avierto and Sonia, an enterprise that provides employment for 70 people, have been preparing lunches for medical personnel and other healthcare workers for the last 11 days.

And expectations are that the program, called Lunch for Heroes, will carry on through to the end of May, when the coronavirus emergency period is due to conclude.

Puchet plans to deliver 10,000 boxed meals during that time, a daily average of 1,400 lunches.

“The idea came about fortuitously. We had a program to deliver boxed lunches to doctors at the cardiological hospital,” said Puchet.

“We promoted it on social media and the response was crazy because customers and social media followers of the restaurant began to ask for a means of supporting the program,” he said.

Puchet and his team can get a boxed lunch containing a main course, dessert and a drink to a hungry health worker for just 100 pesos (US $4.22), and the donations they have received from supporters have enabled them to extend the program to six other hospitals in the city.

As of Saturday morning 242 donors had contributed over 240,000 pesos (US $10,000) to the cause, over 80% of the way to the 300,000 pesos (US $12,600) they estimate they’ll need to achieve their goal and keep everyone employed.

“We have not made and do not expect to make any staff cuts …” Puchet said.

He, his employees and the hospital staff they keep going are still accepting donations via the program’s Donadora account.

Source: Reforma (sp)