A million meals to be served up on front line
Ex-McLaren boss Dennis donates £1m to launch of scheme to provide food packages for NHS workers
ONE million meals will be delivered to key NHS workers in just three months after a leading businessman launched an initiative to support doctors and nurses during the coronavirus crisis.
Ron Dennis CBE, the former McLaren Formula One boss, has donated more than £1million to ensure thousands of medics are well fed as they work long hours on the front line of tackling the outbreak.
The groundbreaking project, SalutetheNHS, will allow staff to focus on saving lives during the Covid-19 pandemic rather than worry about where their next meal will come from.
The first food packs – containing breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks – will be delivered tomorrow.
The initiative is supported by Yodel, the parcel delivery service, and Tesco.
Food packages will be put in accessible areas of hospitals for staff who are unable to leave their clinical areas during 12-hour shifts.
The hot meals, prepared by Absolute Taste, will be available for staff to collect at the end of their shifts. They will also be delivered to the homes of front line NHS staff who are self-isolating.
Deliveries will begin tomorrow at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, followed by Great Ormond Street children’s hospital. The scheme will then be rolled out to other hospitals most in need. Inside each pack is a heartwarming note, which reads: “On behalf of the nation we thank you. “You don’t need us to tell you that what you are doing is amazing, but we thought we would tell you anyway. We salute you!”
Tesco is donating all the food and ingredients for the one million meals.
Dave Lewis, the chief executive of Tesco Group, said: “We’re pleased to be able to help front line NHS workers by donating food and ingredients to provide them with one million meals through SalutetheNHS.org.”
Mr Dennis, whose daughter is an anaesthetist working in intensive care, said: “Charlotte came to me with a very human and personal problem, and the foundation aims to take this on – that’s what this is all about.
“She said the issue is that there are quantities of medical staff in a specific section who must stay in their clinical areas due to cross-contamination, which keeps them away from eating areas. By the time food gets to them it’s cold. Front line workers then come off duty and don’t have time to shop.
“So they have to choose between eating and sleeping. When you put medical staff on the front line, the very least you can do is feed them. I am delighted to be leading this initiative to help ensure that vital NHS workers have nutritious meals while they work every hour in this fight. It means they have one less thing to worry about.
“We have called this Salutethe NHS. org for a reason, because I think we are all in awe of the work they are doing to save lives.”
Mr Dennis’s charity, Dreamchasing, has dedicated more than £1m to the initiative, along with an additional £500,000 of match-funding. The Taylor Family Foundation has donated
‘When you put medical staff on the front line, the very least you can do is feed them. We are all in awe of them’
£50,000, which will also be matchfunded. The consortium of food, logistics and packaging specialists, working either for free or on a cost-only basis, are coordinating with NHS Charities Together, the official umbrella organisation for all the NHS charities around the country.
Calling on other individuals and businesses to lend their support, Mr Dennis said: “I’m amazed at how my friends and business colleagues have stepped up to the plate. This is a time when all of us, individuals and businesses alike, need to stand up and be counted in the effort to combat Covid-19. We’re all in this together.”
Yodel is owned by the Barclay family, proprietors of the Telegraph Media Group, publisher of The Sunday Telegraph. Anyone who wishes to support SalutetheNHS can call 0800 497 0797 or visit their Just Giving page at salutethenhs.org