From Delivering Goods to Delivering Hope
Soon, Mulligan got a call from Samantha Katz, CEO of Chefs With Spirits. Katz is also connected to the World Kitchen, a nonprofit started by celebrity chef José Andrés to fight hunger in the face of tragedies. They asked Little Beet to prepare and deliver 7,000 meals per week for World Kitchen, and Mulligan in turn asked RDS to help them those meals to frontline workers.
“The next thing you know, we’re delivering 7,000 to 10,000 meals a week combined,” recalled Zogby. “Everything aligned to make that initial act of kindness reverberate.” The Little Beet’s landlord, SL Green Realty Corporation, was also looking for a way to support struggling restaurants. They donated $1 million and formed a nonprofit called Food First.
As of July 3, the organization has sent over 92,000 meals to hospital workers made by restaurants that lease space from them. They turned to RDS to deliver those meals.
“Every time we did one of those deliveries, we would take photos and post them on our social media,” said Zogby. “We shared these photos with Food First. They, in turn shared them with their donors, restaurant owners and management and posted them on their social media platforms.
“Those photos generated interest, and that interest spawned donations,” he continued. “The more we did and the more we posted, the more steam the effort generated. People were able to see where their donations were going, and they contributed more.”
RDS Delivery is currently delivering meals for Food First from Armani Ristourante, Avere, NY Vintners, Little Beet, Eat Real Tacos, Just Salads, Juice Press, Sushi Ito, Stout and 5 Guys to hospitals and community-based organizations.
“It’s bringing back hundreds of employees who depend on those paychecks to support their families,” said Zogby. “We’re hoping this inspires other landlords that rent to restaurants will follow suit.”
In addition, RDS Delivery is delivering meals for Catholic Charities of New York, Citymeals on Wheels, Housing Works, North Brooklyn Angels, Rethink Food NYC and World Kitchen.
“What shocks me is how just helping a client make the most of a challenging situation ballooned into delivering over 25,000 meals a week,” Zogby said. “We’ve been in the delivery business since 1973 and transported everything from paper to human tissue, but never pre-made meals.
“We found a way to leverage what we knew and who we knew to grow this effort into what it’s become today,” he added. “It’s been fueled by hope, faith and a belief in doing the right thing. It’s become so much more than we ever anticipated.”
RDS Delivery provides messenger, rush, same-day and next-day deliveries and scheduled delivery services. They run dedicated routes as well as a Rent-a-Messenger program for special projects. Their warehousing capabilities include storage and retrieval, and they also provide professional mailroom management.
Learn more at RDSDelivery.com.
