SAFETY HARBOR, Fla — Giving is in Rachel Wilson’s DNA. She’s the owner of Gigglewaters in Safety Harbor and has been bagging up lunches and dinners for healthcare employees and first responders.
“I deliver every one of these meals personally, I don’t care if it’s the night shift at 2 in the morning, or first thing in the morning,” she said. “It’s something that changed me during the shut down, it changed me.”
That’s when empty tables became full again with fresh meals packed and ready to be loaded into Wilson’s car and dropped off at a local hospital, fire or police station. It’s given her purpose.
“I want to say thank you,” she said. “My mom was a nurse, she passed away a couple months ago and it’s really meaningful for me personally to bring them food."
The mission never really stopped, but as COVID-19 began surging in the community once again a local hospital reached out to ask if she’d be willing to deliver meals again hoping to lift the spirits of tired and overwhelmed medical staff.
“I just thought about what it must be like, they talked about how overwhelmed they are right now and the people that are coming in and some people are not making it and I felt the stress on their hearts yesterday and it just hit me in a different way,” she said.
She delivered 150 meals to Mease Countryside for the day shift employees and 140 dinners for the night shift and hopes more people and businesses in the community will help sponsor meals.
“We don’t charge a delivery fee, I pay the tax out-of-pocket and I don’t take any tips for it. I want to make sure that every dollar that you give us, if you give us more money we will buy more meals. That’s what we’re gonna do with it,” she said.
If you’d like to sponsor a meal, or multiple meals e-mail Wilson at Events@gigglewaters.com.
Wilson is also getting ready to franchise and says a future owner would need to be community-minded with a passion for others and giving back. She says that is non-negotiable.
