Joe Cipolla and Ken Brenneman, restaurateurs, have donated loads of food to first responders and medical personnel in the past weeks.
Cipolla, who owns Dairy Queen (DQ) in Blue Ridge, said he has donated $5,000 worth of free combo meal certificates to Fannin Regional Hospital, Riverstone Medical Campus, Fannin’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and Georgia Mountains Health (GMH).
Additionally, he has been providing $600 worth of food each week since the initiative began.
“We intend to continue doing this as long as the need is there,” Cipolla said.
Cipolla credits Brenneman with the idea saying one day Brenneman mentioned that he was donating food to Fannin Regional Hospital employees. From there, Cipolla decided to join the effort.
Cipolla’s side has been serving Fannin Regional Hospital the most, he said.
“There’s no cafeteria in the hospital after two o’clock,” Cipolla said. “So their choice is bring something from home or eat out of the vending machine.”
Retired Lieutenant Colonel George Pletcher has been providing coolers for DQ to transport treats in.
When asked if donations are needed, Cipolla said folks are welcome to donate if they feel inclined.
“There are a lot of community minded people (in Blue Ridge), much more than when I lived in Alpharetta,” Cipolla said. “Those that can afford to (help) wind up helping whether it’s time or money.”
He can be reached at 678-939-3235.
Brenneman said he kick-started the initiative after noticing some other community efforts: business were taking donations and then matching those, providing free meals to frontline responders who came in and showed their badges.
From there, Brenneman joined in, but with a different approach.
He began delivering meals to four offices within Riverstone, Fannin Regional Hospital, Fannin EMS and GMH.
They were serving 125 people daily, he said.
Brenneman said Cipolla got involved when he told Cipolla what his team had been doing. They then began teaming up to deliver meals and created a schedule outlining who would deliver meals and when.
Brenneman has donated $4,000 worth of food to medical personnel around the community as of April 13.
Partnering with Fannin County Family Connection, he donated 330 pasta dishes, that were later frozen, to place in food boxes.
Brenneman has decided to back down from the outreach for now as his restaurant, Blue Jeans Pizza & Pasta, is opening for extended hours.
The operation went on for just under two weeks.
However, the business owner donated meals of sub sandwiches and a side to folks at PruittHealth this past week and plans to donate to others in the near