De Beers’ lab-grown diamond jewelry brand, Lightbox, is kicking off a community program in New York City Friday that’s designed to support local restaurants—one of the hardest-hit industries in the COVID-19 crisis—and New York City health care professionals, the undisputed heroes of the pandemic.
The brand is partnering with two NYC neighborhood–favorite restaurants, Regina’s Grocery and Vinateria, to provide meal deliveries to facilities in the NYC Health + Hospitals system, the largest public health care system in the United States.
Working with Regina’s Grocery’s mother-and-son owners, Regina and Roman Grandinetti, Lightbox is sponsoring meal deliveries on the Lower East Side to neighborhood facility Gouverneur Hospital starting this week. And uptown, the brand is partnering with Vinateria owner Yvette Leeper-Bueno to sponsor meal deliveries to Harlem Hospital, the largest hospital in central Harlem. The first food delivery, to Harlem Hospital, is happening Friday.
The fine jewelry brand plans to roll out the initiative to additional cities, including Minneapolis and Portland, Ore., in the coming days.
Steve Coe, CEO of Lightbox Jewelry, says it was important to the brand to “highlight small neighborhood establishments with women owners who are connected to their communities” and recalls that when the brand reached out to Regina’s Grocery and Vinateria. “They were on board before we were able to finish explaining what we wanted to do,” he says.
Coe adds that as an online brand, it’s always looking for ways to connect directly with consumers and their local communities, and notes that the pop-up shops Lightbox staged last year in New York, Minneapolis, and Portland, Ore., were so well-received, “we wanted to find a meaningful way to give back and offer support on a local level.”
The initiative was designed to support “several thousand individuals with meals and donations” in multiple cities, he adds.
Top: Two Stone Open Shank ring in 10k yellow gold with 0.5 ct. pink and 0.25 ct. white lab-created diamonds, $900 (photo courtesy of Lightbox Jewelry)
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