The company has postponed its national tour to repurpose its truck in giving out free vegan meals to hospital staff, frontline workers and the needy amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

This week, Miyoko’s food truck started distributing free vegan meals to hospital and community members affected by the ongoing crisis.

The dairy alternative brand pledged to give out approximately 1,500 to 2,000 vegan grilled cheese sandwiches per week beginning with three hospitals in Northern California’s Sonoma County as well as several food banks in the vicinity.

Earlier, the brand had scheduled a 20-city food truck tour to promote its new allergen free vegan cheeses that kicked off from Oakland’s on March 10th. However, the tour was later postponed amid coronavirus concerns and the company instead decided to repurpose the food truck to serve the needy.

“Repurposing our food truck is the least we can do for our heroes on the front line and people who are now struggling in our communities,” said Miyoko’s Creamery founder and CEO Miyoko Schinner.

“While bringing cheese crafted from plants to consumers is about creating a more compassionate food system, compassion also extends to how we treat each other day in and day out.”

Taking to Instagram to post the activities of the first day, the brand wrote; “We’re humbled by the fact that we are able to put our food truck to good use during these hard times.

“Today marks the first day of repurposing our food truck to help safely serve the heroes on the front lines and those who are struggling in our community with meals.

“We have a full schedule of hospitals and community organizations we will be visiting throughout NorCal. It’s the least we can do to help spread compassion during this time.”

The novel coronavirus, believed to have spawned in a food market in Wuhan, China  in December 2019 has now spread globally affecting more than 1,361,598 and killing 76,322 at the time of writing.

Although the CEO declared that the company’s food production line would remain operational to make sure there is no shortage during the pandemic, she informed that she has taken measures to make sure any production employee diagnosed with the virus will “will get paid for 14 days or until they get cleared by a doctor so they don’t feel the pressure to come in sick, no matter what the cause,” reported VegNews.

 Vegan classes

Schinner has also started a video series called Miyoko’s Home Comforts on social media in which she will be hosting cooking sessions and doling out “tips on turning everyday pantry staples into phenomenally vegan meals and snacks.”  

Similar to Schinner, Bosh! duo Henry Firth and Ian Theasby have launched a live cookalong broadcast on their YouTube channel to invite people to cook plant-based meals with them during lockdown.

• Read: Cardi B donates 20,000 vegan health drinks to NYC hospital staff

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