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ATX Hospital Meals teams with nonprofit to expand programs, funding for COVID-19 response

April 21, 2020

Austin-based ATX Hospital Meals, which feeds health-care workers via donations that directly support local restaurants, is partnering with Austin-based Chinese-American Network to expand and enhance programs and funding opportunities.

The collaboration will let ATX Hospital Meals accept tax-exempt donations and company matches and already has its first giving partner in Flintco, a construction management company. Flintco has pledged to match donation up to $15,000, according to a press release.

ATX Hospital Meals was founded by Austin entrepreneur Matt Silk and his wife, Tonya, in response to the impact COVID-19 is having on the local restaurant industry.

"We were inspired by FrontlineFoods.org which open-sourced their entire program for others to begin delivering meals to hospital staff from restaurants in their hometowns," said Silk in the release.

"We were able to start our program and begin distributing food in a matter of days. What we thought would be just a few meals has turned into a mission with an incredibly talented group of volunteers and partners. I can't believe the progress this scrappy group of Austinites has made already."

Since late March ATX Hospital Meals has raised more than $30,000 to serve more than 1,200 meals at two St. David's HealthCare facilities and six ATCEMS first responder command stations.

The meal program is driving revenue to 15 local restaurants, and Capital City Limousine of Austin is donating drivers, vehicles and delivery dispatching services.

The organization is also supporting COVID-19 relief efforts for underprivileged and at-risk groups in the metro area. In the past three weeks, it delivered more than 2,100 home-cooked meals to vulnerable populations severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It has also distributed more than 200 restaurant meals to hospitals, first responders and pharmacists in the same period.