Governor Polis’ stay-at-home order that went into place March 24, not only had a huge impact on local restaurants and bars but also impacted meal accessibility for a lot of hospital, paramedic and retirement home shift workers.
Though local restaurants are partnering with various programs to help feed frontline workers, a Colorado non-profit program, aptly named Rescue Soup is doing their part to fight caregiver burnout and compassion fatigue.
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The Zwiski Foundation, founded in June 2017, is involved in creating seamless interventions that improve the health and well-being of people and communities in the Denver metro area. More recently, the launch of Rescue Soup was a large response to caregivers fighting COVID-19 on the frontlines.
The Rescue Soup was conceived by Eli Katz, founder of Zwiski Foundation and Elyse Gordon-Holz, owner of Nature’s Essential Wellness. Because Gordon-Holz recently closed her cannabis kitchen of 10 years, she had the opportunity to partner with Katz in creating various recipes from unsold produce from local farms and restaurants in Colorado. After launching the Facebook page, a large network of people came openheartedly with ways to donate and volunteer.
The combination of local partnerships of farms, restaurants and volunteers opened the doors to a successful repurpose of unsold food into meals. With the collaboration of Lauren Brettschneider, owner of Rebel Farm and founder Katz, Rescue Soup had an oversupply of produce that took on a new life. Gordon-Holz turned to local hospitals with the opportunity to provide various rescue soup meals — the response was a resounding yes.
“You can’t stay healthy if you don’t eat, and we need caregivers to stay healthy!” said Katz.
From local businesses to larger companies, Rescue Soup has partnered with Noodles and Company to provide homemade comfort food.
“We were so fortunate to have Noodles and Company jump in with a wonderful selection of homemade soups and salad from the Green Valley Ranch location to give to our wonderful health staffers along the way,” Gordon-Holz said.
While the team at Rescue Soup is joining many local restaurants and businesses to help feed frontline healthcare workers and caregivers, they are always looking for volunteers who want to help during the pandemic. Whether it’s through donations or service, Rescue Soup is striving to promote sustainable solutions for fighting caregiver fatigue.
For more info on Rescue Soup, including how to help, go here.