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Local RE/MAX agents start Project Feed the Frontline
The RE/MAX Executive Charitable Foundation, represented by Sandy Lucchesi (far left) and Bill Wright (far right) recently donated meals to staffers at Milford Regional Medical Center. Receiving the order for MRMC were Dr. Celeste Gagnier (in scrubs) and administrative assistant Jean Kirby.
Like many of us, longtime Hopk i n t o n r e s i d e n t Sandy Lucchesi and her fellow real estate brokers from RE/MAX Executive Realty wondered h o w t h e y c o u l d help once the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
B r o k e r B i l l Wright, who founded the RE/MAX Executive Charitable Foundation, which helps provide assistance to individuals and families throughout the Metrowest area and beyond, had an idea to brighten some medical providers’ day by providing them with a free meal.
“Seeing all the stuff about the first responders, everybody’s sitting at home thinking, ‘Gosh, what can we do?’ ” Lucchesi said. “Bill said, ‘How about if we were to bring meals to as many hospital staff members as we could?’ So the board quickly jumped on top of that and figured out how to implement it.”
Thus Project Feed the Frontline was born.
They started with Milford Regional Medical Center, partnering with Restaurant 45 in Medway and driving the meals over to the hospital. Then they arranged similar giveaways at Leonard Morse Hospital in Natick (with food from Marathon Deli in Ashland) as well as UMass hospitals in Worcester and
INDEPENDENT THOUGHTS
JERRY SPAR
Marlborough, targeting the COVIDspecific staff there.
“Our whole thinking was we were doing two things: feeding the hospital staff and giving business to a local restaurant [which provided a discount],” Lucchesi said. “That was really our goal. We felt it was a win-win.”
Lucchesi said the response was heartwarming.
“Every hospital we went to, the folks were ecstatic — extremely appreciative to receive the meals,” she said.
After delivering 425 total meals to the four hospitals, the foundation board — which includes Hopkinton residents Steve Lindquist (RE/MAX agent) and Brian Brown (Guaranteed Rate mortgage broker), while Chuck Joseph is one of the company’s owners — was inspired to continue its charitable efforts. For its second round of giving the board turned its focus to assisted living facility staffers and supermarket employees.
“We thought these people really needed some support and to help keep up their morale,” Lucchesi said. “The grocery store employees are a major component in our daily lives. We’re all anxious to get our food and our toilet paper. Without them, if they stop going to work we have nothing.
“And the nursing home employees, we just feel that they are surrounded by such monumental issues because not only do they have patients that may develop COVID, but [many of] these patients are very needy to begin with. Independent thoughts | 3
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