From feeding frontline workers to helping create ventilators for coronavirus patients, these Comets are doing what they can to help those in need.

Neel Reddy BS’19

Neel Reddy BS’19

A member of the nonprofit Feed the Front Line, Neel Reddy BS’19 is helping the organization feed frontline workers while also supporting local restaurants. Donations through Feed the Front Line help produce food orders at select Dallas- and Houston-based restaurants, which then deliver the meals to hospital workers and other health care professionals.

The team of 20 young professionals mobilized quickly after founder Ben Schector created the nonprofit in mid-March. Together, Reddy and his teammates divide duties such as fundraising, social media and finding hospital and restaurant partners, according to The Dallas Morning News.

So far, frontline workers at Baylor Scott & White and UT Southwestern Medical Center have received orders from local restaurants José, bbbop Seoul Kitchen, Beto & Son, HG Sply Co., Rafa’s Cafe Mexicano and Sixty Vines.

Stacey Boland BS’00

Stacey Boland BS’00

An engineer at NASA, Stacey Boland BS’00 is an instrumental part of a team that has created a ventilator tailored for coronavirus patients. The high-pressure ventilator prototype, called VITAL, took just 37 days to develop.

According to CNN, Boland acted as the operations lead for VITAL, creating a “communication pathway between engineers, designers and visualization specialists with doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists and intensivists (board-certified physicians providing special care for critically ill patients).”

“I am not a medical device engineer, but when I hear someone on the front line needs something, I want them to have it,” Boland told CNN. “We want to be there for them. It’s been a blessing and a privilege to have something so challenging and yet so relevant to be working on.”

Ramzi Taim, Student Ambassador

Ramzi Taim, Student Ambassador

Through COOKED-19, UT Dallas Student Ambassador Ramzi Taim, a junior studying healthcare studies, and his team members are providing frontline workers with fresh meals from restaurants in Houston, Dallas, Arlington and San Antonio.

The nonprofit has served more than 300 meals so far, and has provided meals for nurses, doctors, first responders and hospital sanitation workers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas and Texas Health Memorial Hospital in Arlington.