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Butte businesses and volunteers help deliver food, groceries during coronavirus outbreak

Posted at 8:07 PM, Mar 19, 2020
and last updated 2020-03-23 16:09:00-04

Butte volunteer groups and local businesses are fighting the coronavirus by delivering donated food and supplies to people so they can stay at home.

“We’re making sure were washing our hands, using hand sanitizer, leaving things at people’s front steps so we’re not making contact, so we’re not contributing to the problem,” said Kali Smelich, who co-founded Butte Pantry.

The Butte Pantry started using Facebook to take grocery orders for home deliveries for the elderly and the needy.

“The first night we were doing deliveries, we looked at and we were like, ‘we’re going to cry,’ because there’s so many people out there and they’re so grateful,” said Butte Pantry co-founder Valerie Nielson.

The owners of the Pita Pit and Taco del Sol in Butte have been receiving cash donations to deliver free meals to the homebound.

“Our community is amazing and everybody is just looking for ways to help out,” said Carrie Fisher, owner of Pita Pit and Taco del Sol in Butte.

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These volunteer groups say they’re just impressed with how generous people are being and how willing they are to pay it forward.

“I had one little woman with MS who said, ‘well, I want to do something too,’ as we were delivering her a meal, so she paid it forward and she bought somebody else a lunch so we could deliver it,” said Fisher.