NEW YORK: “NYC Healthcare Heroes,” a city-wide philanthropic program to support NYC healthcare professionals on the front lines, is launching next week, providing up to 500,000 packages of shelf-stable food, household cleaning and personal care products, as well as over-the-counter medicine to staff at hospitals across the five boroughs through June.
The Debra and Leon Black Family and Aramark, the world’s largest U.S.-based provider of food, facilities and uniforms, teamed up to launch the program, in partnership with the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, Robin Hood, New York City’s largest poverty fighting organization, and the American Red Cross.
The Black Family has committed $20 million, including an initial $10 million donation and plans to match additional donations up to $10 million, bringing the total possible raise to at least $30 million. Donations of all sizes are encouraged to help support this initiative. With the Black Family’s matching commitment, just $30 covers the cost of a package for a valued healthcare professional.
The packages will be provided to the more than 100,000 New York City healthcare professionals and volunteers heading home to their families at the end of their shifts, with deliveries staggered to accommodate all staffing schedules.
Select items in the first bag include shelf-stable milk, energy drinks, pasta, tuna fish, peanut butter, ramen noodles, soups, macaroni and cheese, nutrition bars, disinfectant, hand lotion, toilet paper, toothpaste, sanitizers, vitamins and Tylenol. The program is adaptable and includes a mechanism to gather feedback, ensuring it meets the needs of hospital staff on an ongoing basis. The distribution is being planned in accordance with PPE and social distancing standards.
Debra and Leon Black support numerous medical and other institutions in New York City and throughout the United States. Debra sits on the Board of Overseers at Weill Cornell Medicine, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Rockefeller University, and she has spearheaded gifts for Melanoma and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (“OCD”) research.
Leon is Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Apollo Global Management. He also is the chairman of the Museum of Modern Art (“MoMA”) and serves as a trustee of Mount Sinai Hospital, where his family launched The Black Family Stem Cell Institute in 2005.