Matt Silk said he has been fortunate in his career as a real estate fund manager and tech investor, but now that coronavirus has impacted just about everyone on the planet, he said feels like it is time for him to steel his focus toward helping his community.

"Sitting around and watching the news every day and staying home is going to drive me crazy," Silk said. "I'm an entrepreneur at heart, and I like solving problems."

Because of Silk's need to help his community, www.atxhospitalmeals.com was born.

Silk, a Rollingwood resident for the last three years and an Austinite for the last 10, said www.atxhospitalmeals.com serves two purposes: It helps struggling restaurants by purchasing food in bulk, and feeds dozens of health care workers with each purchase.

With the help of several volunteers, Silk and his team make sure restaurants who sign on for his program meet hospital safety guidelines. Right now, there are six restaurants signed up with his program, but Silk said he would like to add more as soon as he can.


So far, Silk and his wife have made all of the deliveries. The first endeavor consisted of a big box lunch order from Texas Honey Ham Company to St. David's Medical Center on 32nd Street in Austin.

Silk and his wife have since made deliveries every day to the same location at St. David's, and Silk documents the trips on www.atxhospitalmeals.com.

On March 28, they delivered 35 dinners from Don Don Express. On March 29, St. David's workers got a big order from Modern Market. On the 30th, the food was from Cedro Scratch Italian & Wine Bar. On the last day of March, the big order was from Tacodeli, and on Apr. 1 the delivery consisted of Chilantro's signature bowls.

For right now, Silk said he is laser-focused on the logistics of his program, which is why so far, the only recipients have been health care workers from the St. David's location on 32nd Street.


"The worst thing we could do is spend $500 on food and then show up and have the hospital say they can't accept it," he said. "So let me really figure out how I can turn this into a program, and then, I'll go and ... [deliver to] another hospital and figure out how much I can grow and scale this."

Silk started building his website March 26 and made his seventh delivery April 2.

He has already been talking with his contacts at St. David's and working to expand into another location within that hospital network.

"Then we'll do another, and then, another, and then, who knows how big this will get?" he said. "But yeah, that's been my last week or so."


Silk and his wife have maintained strict adherence to Centers for Disease Control guidelines, which is evidenced by numerous pictures on his website showing him, his wife and the healthcare workers to whom he delivers all clad in rubber gloves and masks.

There is a national organization with a similar model that delivers food to healthcare workers that Silk points to called https://frontlinefoods.org, which he said was the inspiration for his program.

"I think the last time I was on their website, they had 11 cities up and running," Silk said, adding that Austin is one of those cities. "And they are ... trying to get national funds so they can get programs started in other cities, so there are great things happening. I'm just a little program focused on getting deliveries done, but you're seeing more and more groups pop up, and everyone's joining the mission of, 'How do we recharge and nourish our frontline workers?'"

For more information on how to help Silk's program, click here.