UA College of Medicine – Phoenix Faculty Member Helps Local Restaurants and Homeless Seniors During COVID-19

A project started by a University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix faculty member and a longtime friend shows all it takes is a good idea and some effort to help during the coronavirus pandemic.

Anne R. Titelbaum, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Basic Medical Sciences and Arana Wolin, who works in data management, are helping not only those in need of food during the COVID-19 pandemic, but local family-owned restaurants, many of whom are struggling to stay open.

The idea came from a crowd-funded organization, The Krewe of Red Beans in New Orleans. The organization raises money to provide meals for emergency room personnel working on the front lines of the pandemic, while supporting local restaurants.

“I read about this and thought that would be a great thing to do here,” Dr. Titelbaum said. She suggested the idea to Wolin, who immediately jumped on board.

When the two were first discussing the idea, they decided that homeless people in need of food would be the best target.

“We thought that while ER personnel are on the front lines and absolutely need support during this time, the need seemed to be greater for the homeless population, since the number of donations and volunteers has declined during the COVID-19 lockdown,” Dr. Titelbaum said.

Through a personal connection of Wolin’s, the two came to partner with the Justa Center, a day resource center for seniors 55 and older who are homeless in the metro Phoenix area. Located in downtown Phoenix, the center provides meals and helps seniors get back on their feet with housing and job assistance.

The center has the greatest need for meals on weekends when about 150 people showing up at the center.

“We’ve been able to supply over 500 meals so far. We’ve been doing this for about four weeks, and we’ve been off to a good start in terms of crowd funding,” said Dr. Titelbaum.

On March 26, they created the Krewe of Hope Facebook Group and began collecting donations. Soon after, their friend Ian Sargent set up the Krewe of Hope on other social platforms, including Twitter and Instagram.

So far, they have worked with local restaurants including the Tamale Store, Uberritos, Frank’s New York Style Market and Deli and Cocina Madrigal.

“It’s a fantastic way to do two goods with one donation,” Wolin said. “The initial good is for supporting a local restaurant, and the second is that all of the food that we are able to purchase for them goes directly to homeless seniors.”