By Jon King/jking@whmi.com


Local restaurants are stepping up in various ways to help feed health care workers helping to fight the coronavirus pandemic.


In an effort to provide a small bit of comfort and show support for those “frontline heroes” area eateries have been delivering portable meals to area hospitals, medical facilities and other first responders, as they remain on the job during the COVID-19 shutdown. The Crystal Gardens Banquet Center in Genoa Township has teamed up with WHMI, Grace and Porta, Executive Wealth Management, PuroClean of Mid-Michigan and the Brighton, Hartland and Howell Chambers of Commerce for “Feeding our Frontline Heroes” making boxed lunch deliveries to local hospital staffs.

A similar effort is being led by Brighton’s Hickory BBQ & Grill called Feed Our Frontline Heroes, which has been collecting donations from local companies to cover the cost of meal prep and delivery for between 50 and 60 people at a time. So far, they’ve fed about 450 people at a variety of locations including St. Joseph Mercy Livingston Hospital in Howell and the ER at the St. Joe Brighton Medical Center (pictured), along with the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor and Ascension Providence Hospital in Novi.

Future deliveries are also planned for the State Police Brighton Post, Hamburg Township Police and Fowlerville Fire Department. Donations to that effort are possible through a Facebook link.