Healthcare Contractor Hoar Pivots to Feeding First Responders

By Eric Althoff

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Healthcare construction company Hoar Construction, which is based in Birmingham, Ala., but also has offices in the capital region, has been providing free meals to hospital workers in the Washington, D.C., area, according to Tysons Reporter.

This resulted from a rather fortuitous partnership as Mike Dramby, Hoar Construction’s senior project manager, is based at the firm’s office in Tysons, Virginia, and has been lifelong friends with Bryce Yetso, the general manager of Clyde’s, a restaurant with several outlets throughout Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Maryland. The two jointly came up with the notion to provide meals to overburdened healthcare workers in the capital area, who have been battling the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the Tysons Reporter story, Dramby himself has worked for years on hospital construction for Hoar and was thus intimately familiar with the burdens facing healthcare workers, especially in the D.C. region.

Furthermore, because the Clyde’s chain was forced to lay off much of its workforce in light of the pandemic, Dramby and Yetso found a way to get some of those laid-off food service workers back on the job with their newfound focus on feeding healthcare workers. Given the two men’s long friendship and connections in the region, they were able to quickly mobilize the operation to feed as many healthcare workers as possible in a short time.

Hoar’s work on the project entailed fundraising and coordinating with the local hospitals for meal deliveries that had been prepared by Clyde’s staff, Tysons Reporter said, and also reported that Dramby’s coworkers at Hoar also contributed time, effort and fiscal muscle to the joint effort with the restaurant company.

The pair say they hope to soon expand the joint effort to other hospitals in the capital region.

Meanwhile, Hoar’s workload on healthcare construction hasn’t slowed during the pandemic. Tysons Reporter said that Hoar has actually been busier of late given that multiple hospitals and other healthcare facilities are adding wings and converting certain areas to specifically deal with coronavirus patients.