One year in, collaboration still dishing up hot meals, dignity to O.C.'s neediest residents

Pandemic program delivers meals to needy, lifeline to restaurants — but money is running out.

Delivering with Dignity needs donations, volunteers to continue further into the new year.

Delivering with Dignity, delivered its 25,000th high-quality prepared meal to an at-risk client of nonprofit Hoag Hospital living in Costa Mesa.

"Delivering With Dignity started in Vegas when the whole pandemic hit. A lot of people weren’t able to get food because they weren’t able to go out. They asked me specifically to be part of the launch... It’s something that we’re always looking to be part of."

- Chef John Park

Delivering with Dignity is completely funded through donations from local healthcare foundations, including St. Jude Medical Center, Mission Hospital, OC Community Resilience Fund and others that have collectively raised more than $235,000 to underwrite the effort.

There is a unique private-public partnership comprising local funders, private donors, nonprofit organizations, independent restaurant owners, and volunteer drivers where they have launched Delivering With Dignity.

Delivering with Dignity kicked off in Costa Mesa, it is an Orange County public-private partnership, that delivers free meals to vulnerable individuals.

Delivering with Dignity prepares meals for food insecure individuals and at the same time helps local independent restaurants.

Potentially thousands of local residents could fall within triple threat guidelines who are not served by other prepared food programs and community resources like Meals on Wheels, are homebound due to COVID-19 susceptibility and have no reliable prepared food support system.

Delivering with Dignity is delivering meals to vulnerable individuals across Costa Mesa, Anaheim and Santa Ana.

A newly formed army of local nonprofits, donors, agencies and volunteers are teaming up with Orange County restaurants with a single mission in mind — to deliver some 5,000 fresh meals each week to those hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic.

Delivering with Dignity, a group of OC nonprofit organizations, philanthropists, and independent restaurants, are working together to get prepared meals to people who have fallen through the cracks during the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Delivering With Dignity service is intended for Orange Co. residents struggling with poverty on a daily basis who are most at risk according to CDC guidelines for contracting COVID-19, including the elderly, those with underlying medical conditions and their family members living in the same household.

A unique private-public partnership launched Delivering with Dignity, a program set to bring up to 5,000 high-quality prepared meals per week directly to the most vulnerable people in Orange County. The launch took place in Costa Mesa at Toast Kitchen & Bakery.