Chelsea and QRyde Collaborate to Serve Emergency Food Deliveries of 2,100 meal boxes to Veterans over 7 Months

Chelsea, MA – Today concludes seven (7) months of unique food delivery services to approximately 2100 meal boxes to veterans within the City of Chelsea, MA. Initiated during the height of Covid-19 within Massachusetts, emergency food delivery was initiated through Ben Cares, Dept. of Housing and Community Development, utilizing the QRyde Corporation of Lowell, MA. QRyde is a transportation solutions company who uses a unique services model to schedule and coordinate the deliveries through 3rd party transportation providers who provide non-emergency medical transportation services in MA

“Chelsea was proactive in identifying the Veterans’ needs”, said Ben Cares,  “they were a high priority group who needed assistance”.  This assistance came in the form of at home deliveries of a packaged meal.  Each week, approximately 80 – 100 individual meal deliveries were made.  Ben Cares said, “This not only provided emergency food and nutrition, but also provided an opportunity for contact and checking on our Veterans in a non-intrusive manner”.  Any perceived health or other issues observed during the deliveries were immediately reported and checked out.

QRyde utilizes a unique software and local delivery venders to make the food distribution a success.  “Our model is very versatile”, said Mital Parikh, Director of Micro-Transit Services, “whether moving people or, in this case emergency food deliveries, we can make it happen”.  QRyde operates locally and nationally to work with transportation systems and public agencies to meet their transportation needs. The food and deliveries were funded through the City of Chelsea through the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (MAPC) funds.  The Chelsea Community and Housing Development Department has been active on many fronts during the pandemic for its citizens.  Other activities by the City of Chelsea included transportation to seniors.     

REAL Services Inc. selects HBSS for transportation and meal services software

REAL Services of South Bend, IN, provides programs that promote nutrition, self-sufficiency, education, and protection for 30,000 people in northern Indiana each year. They offer services in 12 counties across Northern Indiana, including Elkhart, Fulton, Jasper, Kosciusko, Lake, LaPorte, Marshall, Newton, Porter, Pulaski, Starke, and St. Joseph.

The staff and volunteers at REAL Services work tirelessly to provide 2,000 people in the community with access to food each day and prevent more than 5,000 older adults from moving to nursing homes to receive the care they need.

Real Services contracted with QRyde in March 2021, we’ll be providing them with our industry standard software to schedule their more than 14,000 trips annually for seniors to medical appointments and other important needs. They will also use QRyde to schedule meal delivery for their Meals on Wheels program under which REAL Services provides nutritious meals five days a week to neighbors in need.

To learn more about our new clients at REAL Services, please visit their website.

City of Chelsea and HBSS partner to provide rides and services to residents

The city of Chelsea is partnering with HBSS Connect Corp to use our services to help expand an existing emergency food distribution system which serves vulnerable families afflicted with COVID-19.

The expansion of this program will soon include providing vaccinations for residents impacted by COVID as well as other beneficial resident communities such as seniors and veterans. The program also provides low cost transportation options for residents to access employment and other vital needs.

Residents will be able to access transportation options through contracted, 3rd party providers within the city via the QRyde app, a community operated call center, as well as a QRyde call center in order to book on-demand rides.