Oak Park Community Restaurants and Donors Make All the Difference During the COVID-19 Crisis

Donated meals

The love and support shown to us from our community has been remarkable. West Suburban Medical Center has received more than 1,500 donated meals from members of our community and the greater Chicagoland area. We have been treated to salads from Sweetgreen, sandwiches from Potbelly (anonymous donor) and West Town Bakery (courtesy of Off Their Plate organization), tacos from Seoul Taco (Off Their Plate organization), pizza from Domino’s (courtesy of SPENGA), Mediterranean cuisine from Cedars Mediterranean Restaurant (courtesy of the Mankind Project in support of Dr. Karole Lakota & West Sub HCW), Noodles & Company, Nando’s Peri Peri, and many more. We would like to express our deep gratitude to every donor and every restaurant that has gone above and beyond in support of healthcare workers here and across Chicagoland.

We want to highlight Tre Sorelle in Oak Park and founder Anthony Miniscalco. Having recently opened in Oak Park at 1111 Lake Street, Anthony and Tre Sorelle were gearing up for a busy summer when the pandemic hit. Instead of closing up shop, Anthony and the team at Tre Sorelle are using their years of experience cooking in the finest restaurants to bring joy to healthcare workers. On Wednesday, April 22, our second and third shift staff were treated to the Tre Sorelle experience. They provided enough hot food to serve more than 300 people. Pasta, chicken, sausage, bread, salads, desserts, cookies – you name it. Tre Sorelle set up shop in the West Sub Lower Level Classroom at 4 pm on Wednesday, and stayed until 10:45 pm, personally serving staff and bringing many smiles and tears of joy to people’s faces. Anthony went above and beyond in support of our colleagues.

Tre Sorelle’s donation began with the generosity of Oak Park’s Izabela Bartoszuk who posted to NextDoor that she wanted to support healthcare workers and a local restaurant. Her campaign raised $2,000, which Anthony and Tre Sorelle matched to provide this incredible hot meal. Thank you to Sylvia Machado and our fantastic Food Services staff for setting up the classroom, Security, AJ Robinson, Marilyn McKinney, Kia Randall, Janet Hand, the house managers, unit secretaries and unit managers/directors for helping to get the food to our staff, and many more who have donated, encouraged their friends and family to donate/support and shared our Give In Kind web page. Your actions are much appreciated.