UPDATE: Local Veteran Seeks Food Donations for COVID-19 Hospital Workers

As we all continue to follow the guidelines of social distancing and staying at home as best we can during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are all grateful for the extraordinary work being done by our first responders to help those who are suffering.  We now know, more than ever, just how hard it can be when our lives are disrupted — when we no longer have the most common, taken for granted, things.

Boredom can easily set in.  Home confinement, lack of access to parks, stores being closed, movie theaters shut down.  What is one to do?

Well, for Barry Weiss, the Senior Vice Commander of the Jewish War Veterans of North Bergen, he was feeling and experiencing those same thoughts.  While grateful to be healthy, he wondered what he could do to help at this time.

Weiss thought of all of the doctors, nurses, EMTs and hospital personnel who were working extended shifts to help those people who were treating patients fighting the coronavirus.  He thought, they are missing their families.  They are working round the clock in many cases.  What could he do to help?

That’s when he decided to act; to see if he could help out those hospital workers, in a small way, by making sure they were fed.

He reached out to the Palisades General Hospital Command Center in North Bergen.   He spoke with a woman named Phyllis.  He told her he wanted to see if he could get local restaurants to donate food to the hospital which would specifically be set aside for the doctors, nurses and anyone else who was attending to coronavirus patients.

The hospital was more than willing to allow him to make the attempt.

Weiss began making phone calls.  So far he says the response has been “fair.”  He would like it to be better.  Since Hudson TV posted this story, Weiss says Hudson Regional Hospital in Secaucus has joined in this effort.

They are willing to accept any food, hot or cold, for their hospital personnel.  The contact person at Hudson Regional is Sabrina.  Her phone number is (201) 392-3397.

Any restaurant in Hudson or Bergen Counties, or anywhere for that matter, who is willing to donate food to Palisades General Hospital in North Bergen, is welcomed to do so.  All they have to do is contact Phyllis at (201) 854-5008.  The guidelines for donating food at Palisades General are very simple.

The food must be cold and individually wrapped.  Sandwiches are perfect.  No forks, spoons or utensils of any kind are needed.  By calling Phyllis you will get all the details.

So far, 19 donations have been made at Palisades General Hospital.

Joining Weiss and the Jewish War Veterans in this effort are the American Legion Post in Weehawken and Dr. Felix Roque of West New York.

Any assistance local restaurants can provide would be greatly appreciated by the staff at Palisades General.  Weiss says if this effort is successful, he would like to expand it to other hospitals in northern Hudson County.