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The Frontline Foods story begins with Sydney Gressel, a pediatric nurse at UCSF in San Francisco. Her friends asked her how they could help her and her colleagues on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis and she answered: “Pizza”. Initially, the idea was to boost morale among clinicians working long hours, but when shelter in place was enacted and restaurants throughout the city closed, clinicians could no longer step off the unit to grab food nearby. Deliveries of prepared food became a core support measure for frontline workers.

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Sydney’s friends realized that two issues brought about by COVID-19 could be tackled through a single program: if restaurants could prepare meals for healthcare workers using money given to them through donations from the community, this would bring back business and keep their kitchens open, while also providing workers on the frontlines the fuel they need. As it turns out, similar ideas had sparked all over the country and what began as independent efforts with a shared vision has become a unified movement with a shared mission: support our local restaurants that have been impacted by shelter-in-place measures, while feeding healthcare workers on the frontlines of the pandemic.

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This website is dedicated to telling and sharing stories like Sydney's. The COVID-19 outbreak has tragically cut so many lives short and brought the threat of extinction to the forefront of the restaurant industry. But there are people leading the charge right now to spark a little positivity in the world. Here at Frontline Stories, we hope to report on those people and bring them closer to you.