Delivering with Dignity OC Program Delivers 25,000th Meal

Recently a unique private-public partnership comprising local funders, private donors, nonprofit organizations, independent restaurant owners and volunteer drivers called Delivering with Dignity, delivered its 25,000th high-quality prepared meal to an at-risk client of nonprofit Hoag Hospital living in Costa Mesa.

Chefs under the direction of Ivan Rogelio Calderon, Founder and CEO of Taco Rosa in Newport Beach, prepared the meal. “Taco Rosa loves working with the heroes of Delivering With Dignity, who give their all serving our most vulnerable during this pandemic, providing every meal with a touch of gratitude for the opportunity," says Calderon.

The Delivering With Dignity service is intended for county residents struggling with poverty on a daily basis who are most at risk according to U.S. Center for Disease Control guidelines for contracting COVID-19 when they leave their homes, including the elderly, those with underlying medical conditions and their family members living in the same household.

“In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the goal of our program is to ensure that the most vulnerable county residents have access to delicious prepared meals, delivered safely to their doorsteps by volunteers,” said Daniel Kim, co founder of the nonprofit Dragon Kim Foundation and chair of the committee that founded the initiative.

“We thank Ivan for stepping up to prepare vitally important meals and are glad we can also address the need to preserve the jobs of the restaurant staff. Delivering with Dignity is a great example of public and private members of our community coming together to take care of each other,” said Kim.

Organizers say potentially thousands of local residents could fall within those guidelines who are not served by other prepared food programs and community resources like Meals on Wheels, are homebound due to COVID-19 susceptibility and have no reliable prepared food support system.

The program is completely funded through donations from Sun Family Foundation, Pacific Life Foundation, Sisters of St Joseph Health Care Foundation, Anaheim Community Foundation, St. Jude Medical Center, Mission Hospital, OC Community Resilience Fund, and others that have collectively raised more than $250,000 to underwrite the effort. Founding partners are 2-1-1 Orange County, OneOC, Wells Fargo and the Dragon Kim Foundation.

The Moonridge Foundation launched the original program in Las Vegas in March, alongside Copia, a technology company that intelligently redistributes highly perishable excess food from businesses and restaurants directly to nonprofits and communities most in need.

The list of nonprofits helping to identify recipients of the prepared meals includes, Access California Services, Jamboree Housing, Regional Center of Orange County, OC United, Program for Torture Victims, CDLF Counseling, Ocapica, Mix Academy, SOY, Hoag, Project Independence, Project Hope Alliance, 4 Girls, Access, Garden Grove PTA, and Illumination Foundation. Copia’s platform powers the logistics and food-matching algorithm, efficiently optimizing meal delivery to those most vulnerable families.

Other committee members Jack Toan, Vice President, Community Relations at Wells Fargo; Valerie Fryer of Miles Away Consulting; Karen Williams, President & CEO of 211 Orange County; Bronnie Lee, owner of Wasa Sushi & Teppan; and Dan Pittman of Dan Pittman & Associates.

To learn about qualifying for meals in Orange County call 2-1-1, visit 211OC.org or text your zip code to 898211. Prospective volunteers can contact https://volunteers.oneoc.org/opportunity/a0x2I00001Rkmi9QAB

Prospective restaurants can contact Bronnie Lee at bsglee@gmail.com.

For more information and to donate to the program, visit https://www.deliveringwithdign...