When Founder and CEO, Laura Malcolm, started Give InKind four years ago, it was to ensure that everyone felt supported by their communities, whenever and wherever they needed it. Derived from the unexpected stillbirth of their first child and the support she and her husband experienced, she created the easy-to-use platform to allow people to coordinate support through Care Calendars, Wishlists, Crowdfunding, and Updates all in one place — for free.
Over the course of the last few weeks, Give InKind’s mission has taken on a whole new meaning with the growing numbers of COVID-19 cases all over the United States, enabling people to support and be supported in the midst of social distancing and crisis.
Thousands of community members are banding together to help feed our nation’s heroes — hospitals, first responders, and other front-line workers — that are selflessly caring for our loved ones. The model that was used to feed one hospital in Seattle while simultaneously supporting one local business using Give InKind, has now multiplied into feeding entire clusters of hospitals while generating revenue to local restaurants across the country.
Chicago-moms Masha Chepov, Irena Persky, and Rachel Brown have connected with thousands of Chicagoans on Facebook to generate support through their 15 Give InKind Pages, providing over 25K meals in under two weeks for their local hospitals. They continue to work tirelessly with community members to abide by each hospitals’ special instructions to ensure the safety and proper delivery to help keep the frontlines fed.
Houston resident, Samir Mehta has coordinated over 1,100 meals for 5 hospitals in just two days through Facebook and community connections.
Actress, Hilarie Burton Morgan has also been hard at work generating awareness for the need for funds to provide meals, masks, and personal protective equipment (PPE) for her community in Hudson Valley, New York. She and a group of local women are using the platform to help streamline all of these efforts through their Give InKind page.
To date, over 80 hospital pages have been created on Give InKind with countless additional pages being used for communities organizing errands for grocery deliveries, calls for support, and loved ones supporting entire families through their COVID-19 recoveries.
Learn how you can help support hospitals and front-line teams in your city here.
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