Free hotel rooms, boxed lunches, child care money available to hospital workers via St. Margaret Foundation

The foundation that supports UPMC St. Margaret hospital announced Wednesday that it is offering free hotel room stays to workers afraid of spreading covid-19 to their loved ones by bringing the highly contagious disease home.

The temporary housing option, now available to certain employees who may have been exposed to covid-19, will be paid for by St. Margaret Foundation’s Employee Emergency Fund.

It’s a new pot of money set aside to help employees burdened by the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The fund will help cover employees’ personal costs of food, child care and other household essentials during the statewide shutdown via care packages, grants and forgivable loans.

“Our community has been extremely generous to support our employees, who are selflessly on the front line in this covid-19 crisis,” Mary Lee Gannon, president of St. Margaret Foundation, said in a statement. “Our staff has the same fears as everyone else, but they show up every day ready to serve, knowing that doing so could make them among the most vulnerable.”

Among assistance available to workers at UPMC St. Margaret hospital in Pittsburgh, near Aspinwall:

• Boxed lunches for the children of employees, with Pennsylvania’s schools closed indefinitely and a stay-at-home order now in place for the entire state. The hospital’s nutrition and food services workers will help prepare the meals.

• Free care packages of groceries, including bread and toilet paper. Employees who have a spouse who was laid off or another source of income loss will be prioritized for weekly care package drop-offs. Many items will come from the hospital’s foundation-funded food pantry.

• Forgivable loans and grants of up to $500 for child care expenses for school-age children of employees during the shelter-in-place order. If the employee is still employed with the hospital in six months, the loan will be forgiven.

• Free hotel rooms. The foundation negotiated reduced hotel rates from local hotels for specified employees “who do not want to return home to spread the virus to their families.” The foundation will pay the full cost upon approval.

The St. Margaret Foundation is independent of UPMC and has complete autonomy over its grant-making and other funding decisions. The foundation’s roots date to 1986. UPMC acquired the hospital in 1997.

For more information or to donate to the Employee Emergency Fund, go to StMargaretFoundation.org/.