California is aiming to boost restaurant revenues while helping to feed the state’s elderly through a state-financed meal delivery program announced Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In what he called a first-of-its-kind initiative, elderly residents in need would be provided every day with three delivered meals from local restaurants.
The participating seniors would be credited with $66 per day—$16 for breakfast, $17 for lunch and $28 for dinner, with another $5 provided for tips or other miscellaneous charges—to pay for the meals.
Newsom described the plan as a way of getting restaurant employees back to work while helping senior citizens combat COVID-19 by remaining in good physical health.
“It’s not just about the meals,” Newsom said during a press briefing Friday. “It’s about a human connection, about someone just checking in as they’re delivering those meals and making sure people are OK.”
The program would be open to seniors who are at heightened risk for coronavirus contamination or who make less than about $76,500 a year.
The Democrat provided only a rough outline of the program, indicating on his website that details are still being drafted. Nothing was said about what restaurants might qualify to become meal sources or what role third-party services might fulfill in the process.
The posting said the program is expected to begin in some locations “in the next few days.”
The outline suggests the initiative is similar to the Chefs for America program that was launched by chef Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen (WCK) emergency-feeding operation. The WCK has pledged to purchase 1 million meals from local restaurants for distribution to Americans in need. The effort is intended both to provide work to industry members who were furloughed or laid off because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to feed the disadvantaged and elderly.
The WCK says on its website that it is currently providing 200,000 fresh meals daily through the Chefs for America program.
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