TACOMA, Wash. — Rob and Myla Colbert of Tacoma said they felt inspired after watching a news story about a group in Washington, D.C. feeding healthcare workers and supporting local businesses.
“It just sort of struck a chord with us,” Rob Colbert said. “We kind of were talking and said, you know someone needs to do something like that here. And then after a while, later on, that I said, 'we need to be the ones to do this here.'”
Together, the two started Feed The Fight Tacoma. In three weeks, they’ve raised over $10,000 in donations and are working with local restaurants.
“I know we've talked to one of them, and they were just like, 'we were really close to just saying we can't do this anymore and closing the doors,'” Myla Colbert said.
Their story was first featured in the Tacoma Weekly. Rob said he’s the one doing all the deliveries and coordinates with hospital officials to make sure things are done correctly.
“So when I show up, make sure I have a mask on and they would take my temperature and all that just to make sure that I wasn't symptomatic, and that sort of thing.”
Rob Colbert said the hospitals also checked to make sure the restaurants they’re working with are up to code and each restaurant offers the food individually wrapped as well.
They set up social media accounts to help spread the word and say all of the donations are going towards helping those local businesses.
“I think it's been really exciting for us just to be able to see a difference being made. It kept us busy for sure in regards to scheduling and making sure we're posting things out and sharing it so that people know that it's genuine," Rob Colbert said.
Both say the response they’ve gotten from the public and the healthcare workers has been incredibly positive.
“It’s one of those things where it does make a change here locally and it makes a lot of difference for that restaurant we're working with, and those healthcare workers that we're delivering to," he said.
He said their focus now is continuing to increase donations and keep helping everyone get through this.