Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Floral touch added to flurry of area feedings
Nice to see gifts besides ‘gloves, hand sanitizer’
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals, families and businesses in Las Vegas are stepping up to offer relief to people in need of food, services
#VEGASSTRONG
and support.
Here are stories about people who are leading with kindness and proving that the community is #VegasStrong. Offers are valid at the time of posting and may change.
Helping seniors with food
When Melody Shay took over as property manager at Desert Plaza Apartments about three years ago, she was horrified when residents told her that some neighbors died of starvation.
She immediately started making phone calls to local food banks and meal providers to keep her residents fed. In the months that local organizations couldn’t deliver food, she fed the residents out of her own pocket.
When the coronavirus pandemic began, Shay realized that it was more important than ever that the residents, who are largely low-income and elderly, had their needs met.
“I started running short. Then the virus hit and I said, ‘OK, I need help,’ ” Shay said. “I started crying out for help, and I got a lot from Three Square and Salvation Army and regular people who wanted to bring food. I’m very grateful.”
Shay estimates that 90 percent of the 130 residents rely on food donations. A few days a week, she or another donor will bring food items to the apartment complex.
“People are also getting to know their neighbors now because we’re all coming together,” Shay said. “These people are my family.”
Wholesaler donates bouquets
When flower wholesaler Greenfield and Co. first learned that it would need to shut down, it first tried to fulfill as many orders for grocery stores, weddings and funerals as it could.
Still with a large inventory, it started giving bouquets of flowers to anyone who could use a dose of happy.
“We gave out 600 bouquets to cars that drove by for Three Square donations,” said Richard Villa, purchasing manager for Greenfield and Co. “People were really excited about it.”
Villa was also contacted by Las Vegas locals who wanted to provide flowers to seniors at nearby hospitals, call center workers for a bank and the cooks who continued to prepare school lunch for children who are no longer attending school.
“People were coming in, not to get something for free, but to do something kind for others,” Villa said. “We told them, ‘Take as much as you need.’ It’s nice to see something else besides gloves and hand sanitizer.”
Free pizza for 200 families
A Papa John’s Pizza location in the west Las Vegas Valley plans to give away pizza to 200 families Monday, first come, first served.
The first 200 cars to arrive at the restaurant at 5045 W. Tropicana Ave. will receive a free large cheese pizza and a 2-liter Pepsi product drink, according to a news release from the company. The pizzas will be available from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
To follow social distancing guidelines, those arriving for food are asked to pull into the parking lot, open their trunk and remain in their cars. A Papa John’s Pizza employee will then put the pizza and drink into the trunks.
Developer donates meals
Matter Real Estate Group, the development firm behind the UnCommons development coming to Durango Drive and the 215 Beltway in southwest Las Vegas, will provide nearly 4,000 free meals to each of the 14 hospitals in the Las Vegas Valley.
Together with Burke Construction Group, Matter will support some of Las Vegas’ top restaurants — including Piero’s Italian Cuisine, Lotus of Siam, Sushi Kame and Urth Caffé — to provide health care professionals with upscale dinners from Tuesday through April 25.
“We have reached out to the chefs and owners of restaurants that are local favorites to support this effort, including a few that will become a vital part of UnCommons,” Matter Real Estate Group partner Jim Stuart said.
The meal donations follow Matter’s and UnCommons’ recent $100,000 donation to local efforts in the fight against the novel coronavirus, of which $25,000 went toward the purchase of N95 face masks for health care professionals and another $25,000 to the Jewish Family Services Agency to provide meals for senior citizens.