Opportunity

In March 2020, frontline hospital staff at Penn Medicine began working around the clock to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. Long hours paired with necessary precautions to prevent the spread of the virus made it difficult for staff to access healthy food options. 

Intervention

Nourished is a meal delivery platform our team created to enable hospital staff to safely and efficiently access healthy and affordable meals amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nourished users chose from a curated list of local restaurants and placed orders via text message. Individually packaged meals were then transported directly from restaurant kitchens to a controlled hospital access point for contactless delivery.

By aggregating orders and delivering meals in bulk, Nourished was able to offer meals at a discounted price, reducing meal prices for hospital staff by 15 to 20 percent of the menu price.

Impact

Thanks to the enthusiasm of local restaurant partners and generous donors, we were able to get Nourished up and running in less than two weeks. The program was piloted at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania Hospital.  

Over the first two months, close to 4,000 meals were safely delivered to nearly 1,000 frontline staff at Penn Medicine – an especially meaningful outcome during what was a challenging time for the Philadelphia food industry. 

The Nourished program was retired when hospital restrictions were lifted.