 APRIL 23 • 2020 | 19

Jews in the D

A

s we endure the coronavirus 
pandemic, many individuals are 
homebound and healthy, feeling 
powerless to help those less fortunate. But 
six local women have found a safe way to 
raise funds to help local restaurants and 
hospital workers.
Danielle (Dani) Gillman, 42, was texting 
with five friends about what they could 
do to help during the pandemic. They 
had read about a New Jersey group called 
Front Line Appreciation Group (FLAG) 
that was raising money in their commu-
nity for restaurant meals to feed front-line 
healthcare workers, she said. The meal 
purchases helped restaurants that were 
struggling and laying off staff because 
of the stay-at-home order to prevent the 

Hospital workers at 
Beaumont Royal Oak 
welcome meals from 
Grabba Green.

COVID-19 pandemic inspires 
friends to raise funds for 
hospital workers’
 restaurant 
meals.

SHARI S. COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Feeding Those
on the
Frontline

Danielle
Gillman

spread of COVID-19.
In March, Gillman and her friends 
started FLAG Metro Detroit and creat-
ed a Facebook group to raise funds for 
restaurant meals for local healthcare per-
sonnel. Through social media and word 
of mouth, FLAG has raised $200,000 in 
a few weeks, mostly through individual 
donations of $10 to $20, she says. It has 
provided 25,000 meals from 50 local 
restaurants to area hospital workers.
The funds are used for meals from local 
restaurants, including Phoenicia, Social, 
Vinotecca, Steve’
s Deli, Hunter House, 
Stage, Jimmy John’
s and others. “
A lot of 
restaurants have reached out to us and 
we try to match them up with hospitals 
by location. There are multiple deliveries 
each day. We have been to about 20 hos-
pitals in Metro Detroit,” Gillman said.
The restaurants prepare easy-to-eat, 
individually wrapped meals for day and 
night shift hospital employees. Hospital 
staff members contact Gillman and her 
friends to ask for meals for anywhere 
from 30 healthcare workers to much larg-
er groups.
For some restaurants, these special 
orders have been a welcome addition to 
their business, now limited to carry-out 
and delivery. “I have had restaurant own-
ers in tears because they’
re struggling,” 
Gillman said.
For others, providing the meals has 
been more of a community service. “It’
s 

a way of showing we’
re grateful for the 
work they’
re doing,” Steve Goldberg, 
owner of Stage Deli in West Bloomfield, 
said. Stage has provided two sets of 
lunches for 30 employees at Ascension 
Providence Southfield. They’
re sold 
at cost, he says. Stage joined the effort 
because Goldberg’
s wife, Melissa Kahn, is 
a friend of Gillman. 
Gillman and the other organizers 
coordinate restaurant orders and hospital 
requests through “a spreadsheet that is 
like gold to us.” Restaurant deliveries are 
coordinated with hospitals’
 12-hour shifts, 
typically at noon and 8 p.m.
“I spoke with a nurse at DMC Sinai-
Grace Hospital. They are really strug-
gling, and the food helps them to keep 
going,” Gillman said.
Lisa Ziff of Bloomfield Hills is a nurse 
at the cardiac catheterization laboratory 
at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Pontiac 
and a friend of Gillman. She says that that 
meals are a “morale booster and make 
people feel appreciated. Plus, some hospi-
tal cafeterias are closed.” 
Gillman, who is active with JARC and 
Friendship Circle, says they plan to start a 
nonprofit organization so they can gener-
ate larger donations. 
“Our family motto is to show up,” 
Gillman said. 

For additional information about FLAG, visit
flagmetrodetroit.org. Donations should go to 
flagmetrodetroit.org/donate.

COURTESY OF DANI GILLMAN

