Schulich Alumni Deliver Help to Frontline Medical Professionals
Schulich graduates Luca De Blasis (iBBA ’14) and Hemanth Soni (BBA ’16) are stepping up with a creative initiative to help fight COVID-19. Recently, they launched a not-for-profit called GroceryHero, a free delivery matching service to help frontline medical professionals.
The idea started when they became aware that their medical professional friends were having growing concerns about working on the frontline of the health crisis and then having to be out in public for essential tasks such as grocery shopping.
“Not only are medical professionals facing increased pressure and longer hours right now, but they also have a fear of potentially exposing the virus to others – especially as many grocery delivery services across the country are oversubscribed,” said Luca. Instead, GroceryHero matches volunteer shoppers to medical professionals in their neighbourhood. The deliveries are free and medical workers only reimburse the volunteers for the cost of groceries.
Luca and Hemanth are no strangers at solving social issues. While at Schulich, they were both finalists in the Hult Prize, where they got the opportunity to pitch their social entrepreneurship ideas to Bill Clinton and win $1,000,000. “Experiences such as the Hult Prize, which we participated in as Schulich students, helped our entrepreneurial mindset and desire to help solve large societal challenges,” said Luca.
GroceryHero has plans to match frontline medical workers with volunteer shoppers all across Canada. “As long as there’s a demand for this, we want to make sure we help fill that need,” said Luca.
Photo by Jonathan Colon