Couple steps up to raise money to help restaurants by feeding first responders, people in need
PHILADELPHIA - Local couple Josh and Melissa Haims hatched a plan to help the eateries stay afloat during the COVID-19 crisis by feeding first responders and those in need.
"It was 9:30 Wednesday morning three weeks and one day ago and he said let's feed the cops and I was like okay,” Melissa told FOX 29.
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On that night, 50 police officers and staff in the 14th District were treated to dinner from Campbell’s Place
The couple sent out an email to family and friends asking for donations.
"We raised $6,000 in the first four days. Fast forward two weeks, we've $15,000," Josh explained.
They've fed 700 people, buying dinners for firefighters, Philabundance warehouse workers, the Roxborough Home for Woman, and 70 children from Germantown Boys and Girls Club and their families.
"It's really emotional. I cry multiple times when people ask me for things and when we are able to give them," Melissa said.
The effort is touching a chord in the community. Lon Rosenblum was making masks for children and their friends just to keep busy when all of a sudden she was sewing up a storm making dozens of masks for her hospital worker friends and others.
"People were really generous of leaving me gifts and wanting to pay for it," she said.
She decided to ask for donations connecting with the Philly Family COVID Fund for Mutual Friends and sent hundreds of dollars their way.
"I think when this is all over. We want to be remembered this time not for how much stress it was. We want to remember it for how much we were able to do for people in the city," Josh said.
If you would like to contribute to the fund, CLICK HERE.
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