Manayunk restaurants donate meals to frontline workers amid COVID-19

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Even with the rain, a Friday in Manayunk usually means a packed Main Street. Instead, chairs sit on tables where customers used to spill out of the bars.

"Our sales are down to about 3% of what they were before," said Brendan McGrew the owner and chef of Bourbon Blue. "But this keeps me busy and if we can't make money, why not provide some goodwill for those that really need it."

McGrew is referring to the Hospital Heroes Food Drive. Four restaurants in Manayunk: Lucky's Last Chance, The Goat's Beard, Winnie's, and Bourbon Blue partnered with the Trauma Survivors Foundation to make meals for essential workers.

"When you're talking about stuff that people have never seen before, these workers are scared right," said Rob Wright, who is coordinating the drive through his marketing firm Small Talk Media.

Friday, Wright delivered meals to Temple University Hospital and St. Ignatius Nursing Home and Rehab center, where the crowd of workers couldn't hide their appreciation for a little goodness in a dark time.

"We're a family here and all the residents are a family as well," said Susan McCrary, president, and CEO of the nursing and rehab center. "So to see people that we love and have loved over the years being hit by this awful virus is devastating to all of us. This donation means so much for the morale of our staff here because they're working so hard they've been so dedicated."

Rob Wright says when the team first started this, they were doing it because they thought frontline workers were hungry. "As we've done this more and why I've gotten so passionate about growing this is because we realized it's so much more than a meal."