Until a year ago, the term “social distancing” wasn’t in the national lexicon and wearing masks was not the norm. But the COVID-19 pandemic changed our behaviors swiftly and often, from staying home to “flattening the curve” to donating meals to hospital workers to searching for vaccination appointments.
We learned to access work, school and entertainment via Zoom and other virtual platforms. Restaurants adapted to takeout models and, along with other businesses, have ping-ponged among various modes of operation as coronavirus cases have swelled and ebbed.
As we mark the anniversary of the first life-altering pandemic restrictions, the
La Jolla Light looks back at the past whirlwind year of COVID-19.
As coronavirus cases surge countywide, two local teenagers are working to help two industries that have been heavily affected: health care and restaurants. Their nonprofit aims to support both by buying meals from restaurants not allowed to serve in person and donating them to people who work in crowded medical facilities.
Operation Nourish, run by sisters Bela Gowda, 14, and Mira Gowda, 17, who attend The Bishop’s School in La Jolla, starts “by working with a small business, a restaurant, and we purchase meals in bulk from them,” Mira said.
Mira, a Bishop’s junior who runs Operation Nourish’s social media accounts and works on the organization’s restaurant partnerships, said she looks for restaurants that are struggling with a lack of customers due to the pandemic.
Local students feed healthcare workers with Operation Nourish
Mira and Bela Gowda make a food delivery to Scripps Memorial Hospital.
(Courtesy)
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Mira Gowda and her sister Bela, local students at The Bishop’s School, are running Operation Nourish to support healthcare workers through their fight against COVID-19. The Rancho Santa Fe sisters raise funds to provide high-quality meals, supplied at or below cost by local restaurants, to healthcare workers at hospitals. Since March 2020, they have provided nearly 1,000 meals.
“Our mission has two parts: first, we support local restaurants who have been affected by the pandemic by buying meals from them in bulk…and then we serve them to healthcare workers in locations that have been exceptionally hard-hit by COVID-19 cases,” said Mira.