Michael Kors serves on the Board of Director for God’s Love We Deliver and has been a big supporter of the organization that provides medically tailored meals for those in need throughout the New York City area. Pictured here at the kitchen at the Michael Kors Building are (L-R) Lance Le Pere, Cynthia Erivo, Kors and Renée Elise Goldsberry (Photo: Mike Coppola at Getty)

Mike Coppola at Getty

This Thursday, around 5,600 households in the New York City area will be getting around 12,500 crustless pumpkin pies, 8,333 pounds of turkey, 7,100 pounds of side vegetables, 5,600 gift totes, 1,250 gallons of soup and 200 gallons of gravy from 760 delivery vehicles and over 1000 volunteers working for who knows how many hours. There won’t be a partridge in a pear tree, at least not yet. But all those food items and more are what the non-profit organization God’s Love We Deliver will be delivering to those in need—specifically medical need—on Thanksgiving Day.

God’s Love We Deliver Provides Medically Tailored Meals To Thousands

It’s a big, big operation. You have to go to the Michael Kors Building in the SoHo area of NYC to appreciate the size of the cooking operation alone—and you’ll find out soon why specifically the Michael Kors Building. There are giant vats of soup, beaters of sizes that are hard to beat, huge freezers, stacks and stacks of food at various stages of preparation and people, lots of people literally doing God’s work. It’s like a commercial kitchen times several times. There are also clear instructions on how to prepare each meal because these aren’t just any meals. They are medically tailored ones, designed to meet the needs of different people with different serious medical conditions.

For the past 40 years of its existence God’s Love We Deliver has been practicing the whole “food as medicine” concept that I’ve covered in Forbes previously not just on Thanksgiving but every day of the year. The thought here is that food is not just for thought, it can do a lot for the body too. The nutrients in food can help the mind and body fight against different diseases. Plus, different medical conditions can mean different restrictions in what people can and can’t consume.

God’s Love We Deliver began in 1985 focusing on those living with HIV. “It really started with one woman who was a hospice worker who was asked to deliver a bag of groceries to a man who was homebound dying from AIDS,” explained Terrence Meck, president and CEO of God’s Love We Deliver. “He was in the West Village and her very first client. When she got there and dropped off these groceries upon her return, she realized that he was way too sick and weak to do anything with them and came back with a warm, fully prepared meal and been watching him devour that, realizing that he and others were desperately needing food, because they were just too sick to do anything else.”

The organization has since expanded to cover those with a wide range of serious medical conditions like cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease and Alzheimer’s Disease. Now, each year, the organization delivers about four million meals to about 15,000 individuals with the help of around 20,000 volunteers. It’s grown into a big operation.

Michael Kors Has Been A Big Supporter Of God’s Love We Deliver

The fact that much of the operations are going on in what is called the Michael Kors Building is no small coincidence. Kors, who is well-known as a fashion designer and the many labels and stores that you see bearing his name, is on the Board of Directors for God’s Love We Deliver. He has also been a major longtime supporter and partner of the organization, has continued to bring in resources to grow the organization and recently told me why: “As soon as I heard about God’s Love We Deliver, I thought this is actually a very concrete solution. I certainly am not a scientist or a doctor, but there was real logic and real heart behind the mission statements of God’s Love We Deliver.” He continued with, “You had neighbors who were in dire need of nutritious food, but also the interaction of someone. There were many instances whereas a person delivering food was the only person that this person who was ill might come to contact with.”

That’s why its’ fitting that the word “love” is in the middle of the organization’s name. It’s not simply food that’s being delivered. There’s also love, attention and intention. Cake in point. When I vsiited the Michael Kors Building kitchen, I saw a number of birthday cakes in preparation to be delivered to people having birthdays.

Kors himself has helped with cooking, preparing and delivering the food. He related a story about a “woman who was in her mid 90s” and “she did not live that far” from the Michael Korrs Building. “We went to go deliver food for her, and when we walked in, her mind was as sharp as can be, but her body was giving out,” he recalled. “As soon as we walked in, she looked at me and she said, ‘You know that I was in a fashion adjacent business when I was younger,’ and I said, ‘That’s wonderful.’ And then she said, ’You know what? I love seeing people, and I love seeing seeing things that make you feel good. Beautiful things things matter to me, even at this point in my life.”

Korrs continued, “Then we showed her the food we brought, and she said, ‘I’m at the point now where food can be beautiful. It’s nutrition, but it’s also beautiful.’” He added, “When we took the food out of the bags and put it into her freezer and her fridge, I saw her entire expression change.”

Taking ‘Food As Medicine’ Seriously

Now one thing to keep in mind with any “food as medicine” is the medicine part of it. In general, it’s a good idea to be mindful of what you eat. After all, the saying goes you are what you eat. But when you have certain medical conditions, what you eat can be especially important, in some cases life and death important. Meck noted, “Many of the meals are automatically tailored meals, which means that our clients actually talk with registered dietitians. We have a staff of 14 that custom tailor the food.” Head Chef Curtis Wilson mentioned, “We do between 10,000 and 15,000 meals a day, including soups.”

Meck explained how those receiving the meals get identified: “We work with over 35 healthcare partners at all levels.” Healthcare organizations, facilities and systems have incentives for their patients to get medically appropriate meals. “What we do allows their patients to stay home out of the hospital to lived with their loved ones,” Meck said. “All of our services are free to our clients. We also prepared meals for caregivers, dependents, and children and the home themselves.”

Meck talked of other organizations trying to do similar things but warned that they have to take the “food as medicine” part seriously. For example, if some type of food service organization wants to serve people with medical conditions, it has to be very careful about following the scientific evidence as to what would be best for the people. The food has to be of the appropriate quality, have the right nutrients and not have what may be harmful.

God’s Love We Deliver Is Expanding To A Building In Brooklyn

It’s also no small feat to get the food to where it needs to go, because, well, food don’t have feet. The food has to be packaged, stored for a bit and then delivered in what amounts to be a significant supply chain operation. “We have about 40 drivers on staff,” Caren Pinto, Manager of PR and Media Relations for God’s Love We Deliver described. “They leave about six, seven in the morning to go to all of our clients throughout the boroughs to deliver their meals.” And yes, she did say six-seven.

“Every driver also has their clients, they see consistency,” Pinto said. “It can feel like Christmas morning once a week, twice a week when they get their deliveries. A lot of clients have relationships with their drivers and friendships. Clients speak to how they love their volunteers.”

The growing storage and delivery needs have led God’s Love We Deliver to expand to the Liberty BKLYN building in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, which is being outfitted into a 30,000-square-foot meal distribution center. Korrs described this as “a real New York story. You get a new home and you think that your home is, you know, enormous. When we renovated the Michael Kors building in Soho at the time, we thought, oh, this space will be able to meet every need, and then, as things kept growing, as far as the needs were concerned, you started to see that in fact, no, this isn’t big enough.” He spoke of how the new space would house a lot of the packaging and delivery operation and that the location made sense since “so many of the clients are in Brooklyn.”

God’s Love We Deliver is marking its 40th anniversary with the 40 FORWARD Capital Campaign. “Here we are at the 40th anniversary, and we are engaged in embarking on this $40 million capital campaign to really to meet whatever challenges are up and coming for the organization,” said Kors. He described the backbone of the organization as “the volunteers. Always has been and always will be. This will allow us to really create more volunteer engagement opportunities.” Kors added, “We’re exploding at the seams, but the exciting thing is that the organization is ready to be there to meet the need.”

And on November 27, God’s Love We Deliver will look to meet the needs of thousands of New Yorker again. Plenty of volunteers will be talking turkey…and cornbread stuffing, smoky winter squash soup, sweet potato mash, cranberry sauce, harvest vegetable blends, crustless pumpkin pie and other items on the menu for that holiday day. There’s also the Fall root vegetable casserole if being vegetarian is how you role. You could say that food is the gift that keeps Thanks-giving.