A Delaware woman has reached a major milestone in her campaign to bring comfort to others during the coronavirus outbreak: 10,000 donated peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit locally and the state started to shut down in March, Louise Eliason thought about the homeless, and children and families who might not be able to access enough food.
So she started organizing members of her church — Westminster Presbyterian Church — and later, her neighbors in Wilmington to make and donate PB&J sandwiches to the Emmanuel Dining Room.
The News Journal reported that by Sunday, Eliason and her network of 120 volunteers expected to hit the 10,000 mark in deliveries made to the non-profit.
Get Philly local news, weather forecasts, sports and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia newsletters.
Eliason, a public relations professional and entrepreneur, said that when she learned people were losing their jobs and children would not have guaranteed free meals at schools, she tried to think of a way to help.
“I was looking for a way to give back. And that was it,” she said.
She uses the Westminster Presbyterian Church’s parking lot as a drop-off location for sandwiches. People pop their trunks and let two volunteers wearing personal protective equipment handle the sandwiches.
After the initial success of delivering 120 sandwiches on March 22, Eliason heard from a neighbor she had told about the idea. From there, the network of PB&J sandwich makers grew.
