Restaurant delivers hot meals to Elk Grove Village hospital ER

A dinnertime delivery by a Melrose Park restaurant Tuesday ensured the busy emergency room staff at Amita Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village had a hot meal.

Chelas Eatery owner Paul Claps and manager Joe Giunga delivered enough food for 50 people, including pizza, pasta, breaded steak, salad and bread, to outside the ER.

Claps and Giunga decided to make the delivery after Giunga's wife, Carol Bozella, had been in a doctor's office to get stitches removed recently. She was told by the nurse there that the ER at Amita Alexian Brothers was busier than she had ever seen it before, and that stopping to have a hot meal was difficult.

The 20-seat restaurant is struggling because it is limited to takeout and delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the pair wanted to ensure that the ER staff was fed.

"This is about the neighborhood, what the doctors and the nurses are going through during this crucial time in all of our lives," Giunga said

Four members of the ER staff came outside to accept the delivery, which was greatly appreciated.

"It's makes what we're doing here a lot easier," said ER Supervisor Dan Haslett. "It's very busy and we stand and eat a lot of the time, so this is the only way we get anything hot to eat."