Otsego County Restaurants Paying it Forward

A group of Otsego County restaurant owners are working together to show their appreciation to healthcare workers.

Appreciation to -all- the employees at local hospitals.

Newschannel 2's kirk tupaj tells us why they decieded to pay it forward.

Four restaurants in the city of oneonta are teaming up to provide all healthcare workers at ao fox memorial hospital free lunch.

Michael joubert is the owner of wiseguys.

He's received around $1500 in donations from the community that he's matching and is now paying it forward.

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None .

None sot: michael joubert, wiseguys owner when it came to something like this with a lot of people being scared, a lot of these healthcare workers right on the front lines and not seeing their families.

Sometimes, believe it or not, food brings you together and makes you think of comforting things, and i just wanted people to feel comfortable, and a sense of normalcy to their life in this crazy time.

Dante's pizzeria owner michael skellie tells me business has been slow, but he thought it was the right thing to do.

Sot: michael skellie, dante's pizzeria owner we're just trying to do what we can for the community.

It feels good.

It feels good.

It's definitely a little stressful.

I think everyone's a little stressed right now, but it feels good.

Tino's pizza owner was right in the middle of putting together the hospital's order and didn't have time to spare.

Nat: maybe when i was younger i probably would have been, but right now&..

So i headed to sal's pizzeria to see why they decided to get involved.

It turns out the owner's wife has also worked in the healthcare industry.

Sot: jennifer grigoli, sal's pizzeria their hours are increased.

Right now they're dealing with very unique circumstances.

It's frightening.

There's overtime, there's limited breaks, and they deserve some kind of love from everybody in the community for doing what they're doing, so we thought that we would spread the love, and what doesn't spread the love like food?

I caught up with the president of fox hospital to find out how the employees are feeling about the gesture.

Sot: jeff joyner, president ao fox memorial hospital it is very comforting and it's very nice to know that you have such strong support in your community where people come and it's unsolicited, and they come and they want to do things for you.

Sot: kirk tupaj and just down the street in cooperstown, the local restaurants there are providing the bassett hospital employees with free lunch as well.

In oneonta, i'm kirk tupaj reporting for newschannel 2.

> three local businesses are joining