Millville man cooking and donating meals to healthcare workers

NEW JERSEY - A New Jersey man is cooking and donating meals to healthcare workers on the front lines of COVID-19.

"I did a baked chicken with mashed potatoes and corn, a pot roast with mac n’ cheese, chicken alfredo, and a shrimp linguini." Are you hungry yet? You can thank 36-year-old chef Shakeem Brown. He owns Touch of Tom's in Millville, New Jersey.

FULL COVERAGE: CORONAVIRUS

“I did my first catering job like five years ago," he said and he's been cooking ever since. But because of the coronavirus no more catering for company events or private functions. Brown had a thought.

"When you're under stress don't nothing help you better than food when you're stressing," he said. The stress he's talking about is being a healthcare worker in the midst of COVID-19. He wanted to do something special for them.

"We out here. Feeding second shift," Brown can be heard saying in a video of him outside a South Jersey hospital dropping off dozens of dinners to emergency room staff, floor nurses and hospital security.

"When you get home you really ain't going to be in the mood for eating or cooking because you've been working on your feet all day. So I figured why not give them a homecooked meal."

Brown provided meals to more than 30 staff at Elmer Inspira and Bridgeton. He provided 133 meals to Vineland Hospital staff.

Some he called ahead to get a count. Others he surprised.

"Mullica Hill nurses they didn't know I was coming so I was like hey I got this food for you. She was like really you're joking? I was like no. I do. I want to feed y'all. And they took the food and they were happy," recalled Brown. He also took the time to think about what works best for their shifts. Taking care to package the meals in heat-up re-sealable bowls.

"If even they only can eat a little bite. There's a lid. So they can close the lid right back up and come back to it later. People were just like wow man that's real dope. That's real positive what you're doing. I like what you're doing."

Brown says the first time he did this was when DWR Contracting Company in Millville approached him about donating meals to a hospital one day. After that he decided he wanted to keep it going. He created a social media post for people who want to donate to help cover food expenses so he can continue cooking and delivering.

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