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City hospitals team up with Uber to provide frontline workers meals and rides with help from Mayor’s Fund

Close-up of delivery man handing a slack of foam lunch box
Photo via Getty Images

Thanks to the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, healthcare workers throughout the city have been able to get free rides and meals throughout the pandemic.

NYC Health + Hospitals (H+H) and Uber for Business teamed up to start a program to provide free rides and meals to all of the nearly 6,000 residents and fellows across the City’s 11 public hospitals, giving them extra support during the pandemic. Under the program, NYC Health + Hospitals, working with the Mayor’s Fund, committed nearly $600,000 toward meal credits and Uber donated $175,000 in free rides, all of which went directly to fellows and residents working in H+H.

“New York City’s healthcare heroes have guided this city through some of its most difficult moments in recent memory, and they are still doing the tireless work of protecting New Yorkers day in and day out,” said Toya Williford, Executive Director of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City. “It is an honor to partner with Uber and NYC H+H to show our appreciation for the ongoing sacrifices of our healthcare workers across the city with meals and rides.”

Through the partnership, all residents and fellows who are just beginning their careers were given an Uber Eats for Business profile, on which they could expense $100 of meals to NYC Health + Hospitals. Residents and fellows could then use the credits when and where they chose within the five boroughs.

H+H is only billed for credits that are redeemed — up to $100 — allowing for no upfront costs. The Mayor’s Fund helped secure a donation to cover the costs of the meals.

Uber also donated $30 in free rides to H+H residents and fellows to use anywhere in the city. The donation and partnership comes on top of the previous one million dollars Uber donated to support healthcare workers and first responders in New York City. The company previously donated $750,000 in free rides credits to the Mayor’s Fund and provided 10,000 meals for healthcare workers at H+H hospitals and 3,500 meals for members of the FDNY. 

“On behalf of our amazing, brave workforce, we would like to thank Uber and the Mayor’s Fund to Advance NYC, for coming together to deliver much needed free rides to our essential employees providing lifesaving care at the peak of the pandemic,” said NYC Health + Hospital CEO and President Dr. Mitchell Katz. 

Additionally, the Mayor’s Fund has partnered with the Debra and Leon Black Family, Aramark, Robin Hood, and the American Red Cross on NYC Healthcare Heroes, which provided staff at hospitals across the city with more than 400,000 packages of shelf-stable food, fresh produce, and household cleaning and personal care products. The Mayor’s Fund also has been delivering meals to healthcare professionals and EMS, morgue, and sanitation and other essential workers through its Food for Heroes program, as well as collecting in-kind and monetary donations for personal protective equipment.