Team members representing Preferred Meals, Prepared Meals Co., Abigail Kirsch, Constellation Culinary Group, Design Cuisine, DC Rental, and TRIO Community Meals were among those honored during New York City’s “Hometown Heroes” parade on July 7.

The parade honored essential workers who served New York City residents through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When millions of our neighbors were home-bound and quarantined, our teams pulled together and leapt to action to provide over 5 million meals to New York City residents in need. The challenges of the pandemic required quick action, tireless dedication and expert execution, and I couldn’t be prouder of the work of our teams at Preferred Meals, PMC, Abigail Kirsch, Constellation Culinary Group, Design Cuisine, DC Rental, and TRIO Community Meals in serving the people of New York,” said Paul Altobelli, Managing Director of Prepared Meals Co.

Fourteen floats represented 260 groups of essential workers at the parade, making it one of the largest ticker tape parades in NYC’s history. The categories included:

• Hospitals
• Healthcare
• Emergency food
• Community care
• First responders
• Transportation City workers
• Small businesses and bodegas
• Education and childcare

Preferred Meals was a supporter of the event, representing the emergency food category. Seven frontline team members–Jim Corrigan, Mike Maione, Victor “Naco” Roa, Ronald Woody, Josue Gomez, Juan Baldera Santos, and Chris Ramirez–represented Elior North America’s five participating companies at the parade.

At the conclusion of the parade, “Good Morning America” co-host Robin Roberts hosted a ceremony in City Hall Park at to publicly thank these heroes and celebrate the Summer of NYC.

We thank and applaud our teams for their admirable work feeding those in need during the pandemic and echo the sentiments of Mayor de Blasio who said, “The Summer of New York City is underway, and the beating heart of our recovery is the gratitude and respect we all share for the essential workers who brought this city out of a crisis.”