#PosiłekDlaLekarza is changing its operating model

6 April 2020 | Authors: Martin Mycielski, Bartosz Kramek

The #PosiłekDlaLekarza (in English #MealForADoctor) campaign has succeeded beyond our expectations. A spontaneous idea two weeks ago has gained unexpected popularity and resulted in over 500 catering establishments from all over Poland volunteering to participate. We also almost immediately reached several hundred thousand zlotys in donations and have so far raised almost 600,000 zlotys. As a result, meals have been delivered to over a hundred hospitals across the country. These are huge numbers! Your solidarity is fantastic, but it also raises some organisational challenges.

Our initial assumption of a weekly lump sum of 800 zlotys per restaurant turned out to be a significant under-estimation. The current model of operation, which entailed no funds for administration and assumed that volunteers from a few organisations coordinating the action would be able to cover the workload is now, in view of the thousands of applications from the catering sector and medical facilities, impossible to maintain. Checking that the documents sent for settlement by restaurants are in order, pointing out their (unfortunately numerous) omissions, making transfers, answering your emails and phone calls, etc., is very time-consuming. Additionally, due to the huge number of applications, we began directly matching wholesalers to food buyers. The market is now flooded with a supply of free food with a long shelf-life, but the challenge is to distribute it.

Our resources are, simply put, too limited. Of course, we are handling the situation, but not as fast and efficiently as we all want.

That is why we had to end the campaign in its current form, as we wrote a week ago!

So, we made some decisions, and the current situation is as follows:

The campaign in its current format has been suspended! Do not send us any new documents for settlement if you haven’t previously agreed it with us. It is not possible to join the campaign now or in the future. If you want to keep supporting us, please go to points 4 and 5 below.
We are finalising the settlement of the campaign’s first week, clarifying the last formal omissions in documents (receipts, bills, invoices, and statements). Most of you have already received transfers, starting with those whose documents did not raise any questions. Please be assured that everyone who has provided valid documents will receive the promised transfers soon.
We are explaining the situation individually with those of you who accidentally took part in the action on the previous terms in its second week (from 22/23 to 29 March). But, once again, we would like to emphasise the fact that we are not accepting new, non-agreed settlements!
We are in advanced negotiations with other partners, including a campaign similar to ours but with much greater organisational capabilities. In the next few days, we will provide you and the public with all the details. The new partner in our campaign will take over the full support of both restaurateurs and medical staff. However, this still requires various arrangements and preparations, so we ask for your patience 🙂 We are trying to make it happen as soon as possible.
Any restaurateurs who want to provide further help to Polish doctors, nurses, paramedics and other healthcare workers can do so on a pro bono basis. We will soon invite you to participate in the new phase of our action.
We are unable to write back to everyone, but we do read your messages. We will approach you first regarding all important individual matters, especially those related to settlements. We also worked on this over the last weekend.

Best regards,
The #PosiłekDlaLekarza team

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