Smart & Final organized a dropoff to Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital catered by Historical Watts Coffee House.
Smart & Final has a number of foodservice customers, small restaurants trying to stay in business during the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to help these local business and serve the health care workers on the front lines, Smart & Final has launched a new meal delivery program.
Two thousand meals will be served at five Southern California hospitals, catered by Smart & Final foodservice customer restaurants, coordinated by Smart & Final employees and paid for by the Smart & Final Charitable Foundation.
"As a grocery warehouse store with a large number of foodservice customers, Smart & Final is happy to support these businesses while showing our deep appreciation for the hard work our first responders and medical teams are providing," said Deb Bell-Versluis, director, corporate communications and charitable foundation, Smart & Final. "Grocery stores, restaurants and health care providers are among the most impacted organizations in our country right now, and we're proud to spearhead a program that unites us and enables us to provide for our caregivers."
The 2,000 meals will go to:
- Miller Children's & Women's Hospital Long Beach catered by Elephant Thai Kitchen
- Jacobs Medical Center at UC San Diego Health catered by Taqueria Las Mulas
- Keck Medical Center of USC catered by Maracas Cafe and Catering
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital catered by Historical Watts Coffee House
- UC Irvine Medical Center catered by El Camino Cafe
Commerce, Calif.-based Smart & Final operates 255 locations, including larger-format stores, Smart & Final Extra!, which combine a warehouse-store format with traditional grocery offerings. All of the chain’s stores sell groceries and household essentials in both bulk and individual sizes without a membership fee. The company is No. 20 on Progressive Grocer’s 2019 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.