SVMC Offers Tool for Sending Meals to Front-Line Staff

BENNINGTON, VT—January 14, 2022—As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to challenge the community and front line clinical teams and employees at Southwestern Vermont Healthcare (SVHC), the SVHC Foundation has heard many requests from members of the public regarding how they can help. In response to this outpouring of concern, the SVHC Foundation has redeployed the Meal Train as a way citizens can show their support. Interested supporters can visit https://mealtrain.com/v1w8yz to purchase a meal for as few as two staff members or as many as 30.

“This program was such a success when we launched it in the spring of 2020, and it had a tremendous impact on the morale of our staff,” said Leslie Keefe, vice president for Corporate Development. “Today, our physicians, providers, nurses, and employees are working harder than ever and often under extreme conditions, so we wanted to once again make this program available as a way for the community to show their gratitude.”

Numerous restaurants in the SVHC service area are participating. Visitors to the Meal Train website volunteer to purchase a meal for a particular department electronically and call the restaurant to order the food to be delivered.

The program is being marketed in part through a partnership with the Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce. All restaurants will make no-contact deliveries to the hospital and the COVID Resource Center in Bennington, and the regional campuses throughout the SVHC service area. A designated staff member will come outside to receive the delivery, so no restaurant personnel need enter the buildings. Donors of meals are not permitted to deliver meals to the recipient locations themselves. Instructions on the Meal Train site offer a list of participating restaurants, but donors can choose restaurants that are not listed, especially for the regional campuses.

“Our healthcare professionals will be uplifted to witness how much the community appreciates them,” Keefe said. “This program will have a tangible and meaningful impact while also supporting our local restaurants. On behalf of the SVHC family, we are deeply grateful for the support.”

About SVHC:
Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) is a comprehensive, preeminent, healthcare system providing exceptional, convenient, and affordable care to the communities of Bennington and Windham Counties of Vermont, eastern Rensselaer and Washington Counties of New York, and northern Berkshire County in Massachusetts. SVHC includes Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center, the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation, and the SVHC Foundation. SVMC includes 25 primary and specialty care practices.
 
SVMC has earned several prominent distinctions. Most recently, SVMC received the American Hospital Association’s Rural Healthcare Leadership Award for transformational change in efforts toward healthcare reform and its fifth consecutive designation within the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program®. It ranked fourth in the nation for healthcare value by the Lown Institute Hospitals Index in 2020 and is one of Vermont’s Best Places to Work. SVMC earned an ‘A’ for hospital safety from the Leapfrog Group for two years in a row. During the pandemic, SVMC and both its skilled nursing facilities, the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation in Bennington, and the Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation at Hoosick Falls, earned perfect scores on a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services evaluation meant to determine the ability to prevent transmission of COVID-19 and other infections.
 
Southwestern Vermont Medical Center provides exceptional care without discriminating on the basis of an individual’s age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture, language, physical or mental disability, socioeconomic status, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression. Language assistance services, free of charge, are available at 1-800-367-9559.