May 05, 2020

Samantha Mango:
Our guest today is Gary Siegel, who is helping out on the front lines with the Liberty Rotary Club in “Operation Feed”. Welcome Gary. Thanks for being here.

Gary Siegel:
Thanks for having me.

Samantha Mango:
So you’re involved with the Liberty Rotary and they have developed Operation Feed as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic?

Gary Siegel:
Yes, so when the pandemic hit, we were trying to figure out how we could contribute, and how we could help locally. And we came up with this idea of ‘Operation Feed’, where we could try to help out the local restaurants and businesses. That’s one of the missions by purchasing meals at the different restaurants. And by delivering these meals a couple of times a day to the healthcare workers and employees at Catskill Regional Medical Center, who are on the front lines. They are working every day. They are putting their lives on the line every single day. So we wanted to figure out a way to kind of help them through this and say, “Thank You”.

Samantha Mango:
Can you talk about some of the challenges that you faced as you put this ‘Operation Feed’ together?

Gary Siegel:
Well, I think the biggest challenge was getting it started and setting it up and then getting the volunteers. We have our Rotary members and that’s the other thing: our Rotarians have been absolutely fantastic! And they order the food, they pick up the food, they deliver the food, and, and they’re all volunteers! They’re all practicing social distancing and following the CDC regulations and recommendations. But I think the biggest challenge was getting it ‘off the ground’: getting the schedule made and getting the spreadsheet made so that we could take care of all the employees. We just worked together to coordinate everything.

Samantha Mango:
Can you talk a little bit about what community members can do to help out the organization, and with Operation Feed?

Gary Siegel:
Well I think the best thing that community members can do is donate. That’s really when we have, I think we have enough volunteers. We have a great number of restaurants that are participating, but it’s $10: a donation of $10 purchases one meal for a CRMC healthcare worker , or employees at 12 local restaurants have been supported at this point, we’ve put over $5,000 so far into the local economy by purchasing the meals. And, over 700 Catskill Regional Medical Center employees have been impacted by ‘Operation Feed’ so far! Basically there is a ‘donate now’ on our webpage and on our Facebook page, we usually put some way to donate on our Facebook posts. The other way that community members could help us is to share our posts our posts on social media, on Facebook. I believe we’re also on Instagram and on Twitter. It’s it’s Liberty N Y Rotary. “Liberty NYRotary.

Samantha Mango:
Okay, great. Is there anything else that you’d like to share?

Gary Siegel:
I think just basically that our motto in Rotary is “Service Above Self” and we have a little slogan for our club that it’s a WGSD, which is “We Get Stuff Done!”. So we’re just overwhelmed by the support that we’re getting from the community. We’re so grateful to our health care workers and our Catskill Regional employees. We’re so grateful to all of our volunteers and those who are helping to coordinate this and especially those who are on the frontline, who are putting their lives on the line every day. Hopefully very soon we’ll be on the other side of this nasty pandemic and we’ll we’ll know what the ‘new normal’ is. And we’ll be able to get on with all of our other programs and projects that, that have been postponed at this point, and delayed.

Samantha Mango:
Excellent. I think we’ve been liking and sharing your posts, so we’ll, we’ll be sure to keep up on that.

Gary Siegel:
We appreciate that.

Samantha Mango:
Thanks, Gary, thanks for your time. And thanks for being here and letting us know what you guys are doing to help out Sullivan County. And we’re so proud of your efforts, and we’re so proud of our health care workers. So thanks!

Gary Siegel:
Well, thanks to you for, for helping to spread the word and, and for everything that Sullivan 180 does in the community also. We very much appreciate it.

Samantha Mango:
So thanks for watching and keep an eye out for our next episode, which is coming soon!