As you cruise your Facebook and Twitter feeds during the pandemic shelter-in-place order, you may have seen several posts of first responders, medical teams and others taking receipt of donated meals to keep them energized while on duty. A number of those meals have come from the generous members of the Women’s Service League here in Michigan’s Great Southwest.
Women’s Service League (WSL) members, who have been helping the collective community of Berrien County since 1931, have also been busy assisting the community in many ways this past week in response to the mandatory shutdown of non-essential businesses due to COVID-19.
As soon as word got out about trying to flatten the curve for becoming infected with COVID-19, non-essential businesses closing down, and social distancing becoming the new norm, WSL stepped up to help. A plan was established to help out the people in the community who are on the front lines of the pandemic. WSL President Mary LoPresti of St. Joseph says, “That’s what Women’s Service League does…we help people.”
Over the past week, WSL set up a donation site through PayPal to accept donations through http://womensserviceleague.org/get-involved/sponsorships, which is direct linked below.
More than one hundred meals (tacos, sub sandwiches, pizzas, and more) have been delivered to medical workers and police enforcement on the job who are working above and beyond to test, treat, and protect community members who have been affected by COVID-19, including:
- Benton Charter Township Fire Department
- Benton Charter Township Police Department
- City of Benton Harbor Police Department
- Lincoln Township Police Department
- Spectrum Health Lakeland – Central Scheduling
- Spectrum Health Lakleland ER – Niles
- Spectrum Health Lakeland ER – St. Joseph
- Spectrum Health Lakeland – IT Team
- Spectrum Health Lakeland – Pathology
- St. Joseph Post Office
WSL Secretary Amy Nolan, who has been coordinating the deliveries, says, “It was a small gesture of appreciation….free lunch…but we were greeted with big smiles from these people who are continuing to work so we can stay home and be safe.”
Nolan adds, “The effort was two-fold, as the donations to purchase the meals helped out the restaurants who are struggling and only being allowed to serve take-out and delivery and also showed appreciation to the hospitals and police departments.”
Some restaurants got involved too. The LakeHouse of St. Joseph offered a buy-one-get-one-free healthcare worker special, which allowed WSL to purchase more meals, and Jimmy John’s in Niles donated a second round of sandwiches the following day to the Spectrum Health Lakeland ER when they saw what WSL was doing. More deliveries are continuing to be scheduled.
WSL member Amy Wells also contacted Meals on Wheels of Southwest Michigan (MOW), which provides and delivers healthy meals to senior citizens, to see if help was needed. WSL has partnered with MOW on service projects over the past year, and MOW did need help with making emergency, shelf-stable meals that are critical to MOW’s homebound clients who are already too frail to go out for nutritious food sources. Mow needed canned goods such as chicken, tuna, soup, veggies, fruit, pasta, ravioli, macaroni & cheese, breakfast bars, instant oatmeal, peanut butter, and crackers. WSL used donations, from both the PayPal donation account and canned goods from its members, to make a delivery last week to MOW and are making another delivery this week. The donations made emergency shelf-stable meals that were given to their senior clients.
However, the need continues, and if you’d like to help, you can donate by clicking the link below:
http://womensserviceleague.org/get-involved/sponsorships
Non-profit organizations who would like to be a beneficiary of a Women’s Service League fundraiser, need volunteers, or would like to partner on a service project, are invited to contact WSL Community Connections Chairperson Allison Arend at allisonarend@gmail.com.
WSL, which has nearly 60 members, has eight committees that work on projects and service throughout the year.
In the photo shared with Moody on the Market by the Women’s Service League you see when Spectrum Health Lakeland’s ER Department received a free lunch of appreciation from Women’s Service League and Jimmy John’s for their efforts to keep the community healthy during the COVID-19 shutdown.
