HOMETOWN HELPERS: Daily delivery of home-baked treats by Pelham neighbors is sweet relief for night shift battling coronavirus at two Bronx hospitals

The midnight shift at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx sends their thanks for that night’s delivery.

Laurie Messman, with a little help from her friends, brings a nightly message of sweet support to the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis.

The resident of suburban Pelham, along with two dozen caring neighbors, bakes a fresh batch of cookies, brownies and cupcakes for daily drop-off at two Bronx hospitals, a tasty thank you to emergency room staffers working the 11 p.m.-7 a.m. shift. The first treats arrived on March 22, with Messman’s do-it-yourself efforts now stretched into a third month.

Laurie Messman, organizer of the "Soul Sweets" nightly delivery of brownies and cookies to ER workers.

“The idea was that hopefully we’re creating a little something for the soul,” explained Messman, the guiding force behind the extra-special deliveries for thrilled workers at Jacobi Hospital and the Montefiore Medical Center. “I hope when somebody gets their cupcake, they know that just for that second, ‘OK, somebody’s got me.’”

There are not a lot of rules in the effort, although two are inviolable: Nothing from the local Dunkin’ Donuts. And no Entenmann’s cakes from the town supermarket. Store-bought goodies are verboten in the deliveries known as “Soul Sweets.”

“That’s not what this is about,” said interior designer Messman, whose clients include singer/pianist Michael Feinstein. "This is about the gift of time, so that somebody feels cared for. And in turn, they get to care for somebody else. I get that the workers all have the skills. But beyond, way beyond just the skills, is the wonderful place of caring about your patients.

“You have to feed that — apparently with cupcakes."

Each night around midnight, Messman appears with about 150 freshly-baked treats for the staff: Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at Montefiore, Wednesday through Saturday at Jacobi. She has a connection to both busy Bronx facilities.

Her husband worked as an executive at Jacobi before retiring three years ago. And her sister died suddenly last September at Montefiore, where Messman was overwhelmed and impressed by the high level of care and concern from the staff.

When coronavirus cases exploded last month, the thought of giving something back to hospital workers came quickly. She was unsure how her idea of delivering treats to the night shift would be received, but the plan was quickly embraced by both her neighbors and the workers.

"All we did was try to love them through it all,” she explains. “The workers have done the heavy lifting.”

Laurie Messman and her neighbors bake cookies, brownies and cupcakes for daily drop-off at two Bronx hospitals.

In addition to the sweets, the bakers and their kids attach notes of encouragement and thanks to the staff.

She makes the deliveries personally, arriving at the emergency room door with the baked goods under tight seal. Parking at Montefiore is tight, so Messman enlists one of her kids to sit in the car to avoid any parking tickets while she carries her cargo of love to the waiting workers — who are thrilled by her arrival.

The grateful hospital workers, clad in protective gear from the usual scrubs and protective visors to ski goggles and bandanas, posed for photos to express their delight.

“Thank you Pelham bakers” read a sign held by one Montefiore worker, flanked by her late-shift colleagues. The message was accompanied by a pair of hand-drawn hearts.

Messman recalled receiving a note from the director of nursing at Jacobi describing how the nightly visits lifted spirits in a time of great despair.

“That made me feel like, ‘OK, I’ll keep baking,'” she recalled. “I wish we didn’t have to be baking. But there’s a lot of really sick people going into those ERs. So we’ll stop baking when we’re done with all this.”