Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic started, it seems like the whole world has shut down. For the medical staff of Hoboken and Jersey City, lives have instead become much busier. Hospitals are flooded with patients and the medical staff in the New York/New Jersey area are stretched to their limits. Often, these healthcare workers do not have time to prepare meals in between their increasingly busy schedules.
Edward Safer, realizing how much the healthcare workers of Hoboken and Jersey City are in dire need of support, started a GoFundMe campaign on April 2, 2020 called “Feed the Frontlines Hoboken & Jersey City.” The goal of this fundraiser was to collaborate with local restaurants and delivery services to provide direct, ready-to-eat meals for free to doctors, nurses, and other medical staff in Hoboken and Jersey City.
Taking inspiration from similar online campaigns in New York, Safer formed this fundraiser to provide students and residents with a way to directly participate in the fight against COVID-19. According to Safer, “people are staying home and feeling like they can’t do anything at all,” which leads people to feeling powerless in the fight.
Within 24 hours, the campaign raised close to $1,000 and soon more students wanted to join the campaign. Since its inception, three other students have joined the team — Emily Ferguson, Andon Parascando, and Emilee Erickson.
According to Safer, Ferguson is the primary restaurant liaison; she is developing restaurant connections and setting up both prices and orders. Parascando is more of a visionary in the group and is working on outreach to local businesses, such as UFC Hoboken. Erickson is handling much of the delivery logistics as well as social media outreach. Safer added that while these are the primary positions, everyone in the team is working on “just about everything.” All members of the team have previous experience in similar charitable causes either through Greek life, student organizations, or outside charities. So far, the team has partnered with Café Michelina, Seven Valleys, and Vito’s Deli.
Moreover, the team has changed its name from “Feed the Frontline Hoboken & Jersey City” to the catchier “Hope from Hoboken.”
Outside of collaborating with local restaurants, the team also wants to collaborate with local fitness groups to promote their goal of providing direct meals to medical staff. For instance, they have partnered with local fitness trainers like @shelby_sweats of Instagram, UFC Hoboken, and local yoga groups. Some of these local fitness groups have switched to running their sessions online due to the pandemic, so the plan is to promote Hope from Hoboken on this platform.
The team has already received acclaim and praise from local medical staff. Upon delivering over 40 subs and 40 pasta dishes to the Hoboken University Medical Center (HUMC), which was provided through Vito’s Deli, Safer remarks that the staff there gave great positive feedback and were all grateful for the ready-to-eat meals for their exhausted personnel.
As the campaign gains more traction and more people are drawn to the cause, Safer anticipates that the team might have to expand. Currently, the online campaign has a funding goal of $10,000, which was updated from their previous goal of $2,500. Furthermore, their website states that their goal is to provide “1,000 meals to our healthcare workers over the next couple weeks.”
If anyone would like to donate to this campaign, it is listed as “Hope from Hoboken” on GoFundMe. The team is also on Instagram as @hopefromhoboken and on Facebook as “Hope from Hoboken.” Moreover, if anyone would like to contact the team, they can be reached at hopefromhoboken@gmail.com.
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