One Toronto restaurant managed to deliver 500 hot pasta meals to healthcare workers at a Toronto hospital on April 17, using extensive planning.

Piazzetta Trattoria donated the 500 meals to North York General Hospital after "a week of emails and coordination" according to Albjon Leka.

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A post shared by Piazzetta Trattoria (@piazzettatrattoria) on Apr 17, 2020 at 7:19pm PDT

"Support through takeouts and delivery orders has been great so far, and this allowed for Piazzetta to survive in this difficult time and also come up with the intention of making a donation to the NYGH," says Leka. "We managed to set a date for the event and get a full list of departments split by resources, so we came up with the number 500."

They partnered with wholesaler MVR Cash & Carry to purchase "all the bags, boxes, food, drinks and other material. This happened during the last three days prior to the event," says Leka.

Volunteers and friends started working early in the morning on the day of the delivery.

"We provided them with masks, gloves and sanitizers all around the place and setup the restaurant so that each one of them was working in their station 2 meters away from each other," says Leka.

Piazzetta Trattoria in Toronto just donated 500 meals to North York General Hospital #Toronto #ourcommunityTO https://t.co/N9ZjEZG1vS pic.twitter.com/BOIfVxZaPv

— blogTO (@blogTO) April 18, 2020

Hot meals consisted of a vegetarian or meat pasta bundled with water and a chocolate bar in individually packed boxes destined for certain departments. A coordinator specialist and staff were waiting at the Receiving department for NYGH for the lunchtime delivery, which arrived in two batches.

"We couldn't see their smiles through the masks, but we felt their gratitude through their eyes," says Leka. "Many workers contacted us on our Instagram page to thank us directly."

Leka expresses gratitude towards healthcare workers and the staff at Piazzetta.

"This was a wonderful event that made everybody feel incredibly good about the job that was done and also made everyone think it was an experience worth repeating at least once a year," says Leka, "and why not if the financial possibility allows it in the short term."