Covid-19 coronavirus: Free pizza delivered to Rotorua's frontline workers

Free pizza dropped off at Visions of a Helping Hand homeless shelter. Photo / Supplied

The city's frontline workers have been treated to hundreds of free pizzas as a way of saying thank you for their dedication.

Supermarkets, hospitals, pharmacies and even homeless shelters across the city received an unexpected surprise yesterday when Domino's Pizza turned up with free food for all staff.

Gemma Carlyle, who works at Western Heights Pharmacy, said the gift meant so much to her and her colleagues at such a hectic time.

"It's just a really nice way to say thanks, we've been super busy and for someone to stop and say thank you means a lot."

She said it was not always pleasant telling people to stay behind lines but they were just trying to keep people safe.

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website

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Keeping frontline workers fed and healthy was hugely important to the community, she said.

General manager of Domino's NZ Cameron Toomey said they were all about "feeding the frontliners" in times of crisis.

He said often such busy times meant workers forgot to eat, so gifting them free pizza meant they could stop for a second and fuel their bodies.

Since Friday, Domino's restaurants across the country had given out about 30,000 free pizzas nationwide, he said.

"It makes you feel good, especially when you see the surprise on the workers face when you arrive,

"It is really tough times out there, some of them will be doing really long shifts."

He said the drivers would arrive at the door, place the pizza in a safe place, step back and call the recipient and give them a friendly wave when they picked it up.

He said they always kept a safe distance.

Facebook was abuzz with chatter from grateful residents mentioning places they had seen the pizza delivered too and one comment saying "that's the community spirit".