“Feed Our Frontline Families” initiative launches to help Mohawk Valley health-care workers, restaurants

UTICA, N.Y. — F.X. Matt Brewery, the Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce, and the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties have launched an initiative called “Feed Our Frontline Families.”

The goal of this initiative is to “inject cash flow” into area restaurants, helping them to stay in business and keep staff employed, “all while ensuring frontline workers get what they need.”

Donations will be collected through feedourfrontlinefamilies.com and managed by the Community Foundation to purchase gift cards in increments of $50 for area restaurants. The Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce will oversee the purchase of gift cards and work with the Community Foundation and Saranac Brewery to distribute them to frontline workers, such as health-care workers, first responders, other essential workers and their families.

Organizers hope the community will join in to make donations, “small or large.” For every $50 donated, a “local hero” will get a gift card to help put food on their table so they can “focus on continuing to keep the community healthy,” they say.

Those interested can visit feedourfrontlinefamilies.com to make a donation. All donations are tax deductible, as allowed by law.

“It has been our mission since the beginning of the pandemic to help as many businesses as possible stay open,” Meghan Fraser McGrogan, executive director of the Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce, said in a news release. “The Chamber has worked together with our partners to deliver the necessary tools to make Feed Our Frontline Families a reality. We are proud to launch this initiative as it helps us achieve our ultimate goal to keep local commerce moving, and to help it to grow as we move forward.”

Indium Corporation of Clinton, Human Technologies of Utica, and Westmoreland–based Ed & Ed Business Technology are supporting the initiative.

Visual credit: Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce Facebook page