Local restaurants thank STHS healthcare heroes the best way they know how: with food

Margaret French, right, of Zea’s Rotisserie & Bar hands off some of the nearly 50 meals the Covington restaurant donated Tuesday (April 14) to St. Tammany Health System’s Food Services team to feed front-line healthcare workers. (Photos by Tim San Fillippo)

By Mike Scott, mscott@stph.org

Ever since St. Tammany Health System’s first confirmed case of COVID-19 arrived in mid-March, STHS colleagues have been giving their all to keep the community as safe as possible from the novel coronavirus. In response, the community has been giving its all to make sure STHS colleagues know how valued they are.

That trend continued Tuesday (April 14) with a donation of nearly 50 lunches from Zea’s Rotisserie & Bar in Covington – including everything from Thai-style ribs to house-made rotisserie chicken to sirloin beef -- for healthcare workers on the front line of STHS’s ongoing fight against COVID-19.

“We get an opportunity to share what we do well and thank our partners here (at STHS) for what they do well,” said Margaret French, the area director and general manager of Zea’s on U.S. 190 in Covington, who handed off the meals to STHS Food and Nutrition Department staff on behalf of the restaurant and owner Greg Reggio.

While Zea’s is among the most recent local businesses to show their gratitude to local healthcare workers with food, they’re by no means alone. In fact, they’re only the latest in a long line of donors to deliver hot meals – and words of thanks -- to the Covington hospital over the past few weeks.   

On the same day Zea’s made its donation, for example, Nonna Randazzo’s Bakery in Covington sent over boxes of deserts to brighten the spirits of local healthcare workers.

Later that night, Dickies and the St. Tammany Hospital Foundation donated dinner for the hospital’s late crew. Acquistapace's Covington Supermarket recently sent over a load of bagged lunches with individual notes of encouragement hand-written on each one.

And on Easter Sunday, the Abita Springs Café, Abita Roasting Co., Abita Brew Pub, Covey Rise Farms, Restaurant Coté and the Maple Room teamed with Heritage Bank of St. Tammany, Republic Services, Eagle A/C & Heating, Trinity Lutheran Church and St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office to feed some 600 local healthcare heroes.

The list goes on: Beck-N-Call Cafe, Del Porto, OXLOT 9, the Columbia Street Tap Room, the Mande Milkshakers, Papa John's, Coffee Rani, The Giddy Up …

“So many of our local restaurants have been incredibly generous,” STHS Executive Chef Abry Crosby said. “We’re always here to look out for our community, and it’s just great to have them looking out for us, as well.”  

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If you’d like to donate meals to the St. Tammany Health System staff, contact Helen McNab in the STHS Food Service Department at hmcnab@stph.org or (985) 898-4065 and follow these food-safety guidelines:

• Food must be prepared in a licensed and LDH-inspected facility.
• Food should be individually wrapped or packaged, as we are no longer using buffet service in the hospital. Pizza is an exception.
• Cold donations help us ensure time/temperature guidelines are met, but we can work with hot food as well.
• Where possible, please consider contributing healthy food choices.
• Please label the gift with instructions if needed. Include who is giving the gift, so we know who to recognize.
• Our hospital is in a restricted access environment, so donations must be delivered to the rear food service entrance. They can then be delivered within the hospital by food service staff.