Finding a healthy meal was already a daily struggle for thousands and coronavirus has made the situation worse with job losses, shop and restaurant closures, for hospital workers working long hours, and the elderly and vulnerable. Here are the chefs, mutual aid groups, businesses and individuals doing everything to help out.

NYC-based Heart of Dinner is delivering hot meals, groceries and dried food to the elderly Chinese community for whom it's not safe to go out. Handwritten notes are attached to food parcels with messages such as “We are thinking of you. We love you."

Heart of Dinner was set up by Yin Chang and Moonlynn Tsai, co-owner of Malaysian restaurant Kopitiam, who do the cooking themselves. They make homely, comforting dishes such as braised five-spice tofu and mushrooms or brown rice porridge with stir-fried eggs, tomatoes and spring onions.

The Chinese-American Planning Council has been helping to distribute food packages and handwritten notes in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Along with a few other restaurants including Saigon Social, Partybus Bakeshop and Golden Diner, they deliver up to 1,200 meals a day and are fundraising to be able to continue their work.

After helping a few friends out with meals, cook and founder of Basbaas Sauce Hawa Hassan and Tamy Rofe, co-owner of Colonia Verde, a restaurant in Brooklyn, New York, decided to offer their culinary assistance to local hospitals. The initial plan was to cook meals in the restaurant kitchen, like digaag qumbe (a Somali chicken stew), and deliver them to frontline workers.

They called the initiative Food For Scrubs and after asking around, made contacts at the hard-hit Brooklyn Hospital Center and SUNY Downstate. The public can donate a stew by going to Colonia Verde’s website. On 1 May they delivered 1,725 meals to people in need.

Thanks to Idaho meat producer Snake River Farms, San Franciscans in need of food bank parcels will receive a $60 (£49) steak. Due to closures of restaurants the producer usually supplies, its 10oz (285g) American wagyu steaks were donated to San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, Meals on Wheels and Self Help for the Elderly.

The company's executive marketing director Jay Theiler said, "We are firm believers that in times of crisis, food can bring comfort and healing.” We certainly agree it can’t hurt – especially good-quality food.

Agri Beef has also donated $8 million (£6.5 million) worth of steaks, which equates to approximately 200,000 cuts of meat. The recipients are medical workers, displaced restaurant workers and communities in cities particularly hard hit by COVID-19 including New York, Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

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This East Midlands, UK bakery wants to thank the National Health Service for its work looking after people with COVID-19 by sending deliveries of baked goods to hospitals. Positive Bakes is matching every brownie and cake box bought from its website with an NHS delivery at no extra cost.

Among its goodies are salted caramel brownies, banana cakes, and fruit and nut granola bars. Everything at Positive Bakes is plant based and free from gluten, soya, dairy, refined sugar and palm oil. It delivers to customers via next day delivery but sends batches of treats to the NHS in big shipments, and the scheme runs up to 30 June 2020.

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Founded by a group of chef-activists, High Road Kitchens is funding restaurants in California to reopen for takeout so they can re-employ staff and provide meals for people in need. One restaurant participating is Alta Adams in Los Angeles, offering meals such as spicy fried rice porridge with a pay-what-you-can policy.

Low-wage workers, health care workers and first responders don't have to pay anything and those who choose to pay $20 (£16) cover the cost of their own meal plus a future plate for someone else. Another restaurant participating is Hook & Ladder in Sacramento, serving dishes such a Italian braised chicken thighs, roasted bell peppers and onions (pictured).

Starting in San Francisco, Frontline Foods pairs restaurants with hospitals and is funded through donations. It all began when Sydney Gressel, a paediatric nurse at UCSF, was asked by friends what her team needed the most and she answered pizza. With restaurant closures due to COVID-19, there was nowhere to get a quick bite between shifts.

People up and down the country had the same idea so they merged to become a unified movement. Frontline Foods partners with World Central Kitchen, operates in more than 50 cities and has delivered 350,000 meals and counting. One restaurant involved is Italian Via Emilia 9, supplying meals to Larkin Hospital, South Miami.

Great White Venice, in Venice, California, is another restaurant funded by Frontline Foods, sending healthy meals such as falafel wraps to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills. Meanwhile, Plant Shop has been delivering salad bowls.

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Four weeks into his new job at Michelin-starred River Café in west London, George Williams was furloughed so decided, with help from his flatmates, to put together care packages for anyone feeling isolated. Inside were homemade goodies such as pasta, pesto, smoked mackerel pâté, sourdough, kimchi, and olive and jalapeño hummus.

After funding the first round himself, George then fundraised to cover the cost of 50 packages for Charing Cross Hospital. He's since sent out more than 400 care parcels and has started selling homemade food packs as gifts, so he can continue to give freely to NHS staff, people who need them and donate to Hospitality Action.

This sweet project is the work of photographer Melanie Dune, actress Stephanie March, food personality Gail Simmons, writer Anjali Kumar and restaurateur Judi Wong. They asked New York bakeries including Levain, Ovenly (cookies pictured), Empire Bakery and Le Bernardin to bake sweet treats for hospital workers using money from donations.

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So far more than $20,000 (£16,000) has been raised, 25 bakeries supported and 35 hospitals visited, including Lincoln Hospital in Harlem. The doctors there enjoyed the baked chocolate sable cookies, shortbread biscuits and famous chocolate brownies (pictured) from West Village bakery Mah-Ze-Dahr so much, they asked for a repeat visit.

This London-based initiative was started by junior A&E doctor Jack Manley. He noticed how hard it was becoming for hospital staff to get food due to busy queues at the canteen and ransacked shelves in supermarkets. And that it was only doctors who were receiving meals from donors and patients' families. DeliverAid's aim is to get healthy, freshly prepared meals to those on the frontline who need it most and also support food business and restaurants to remain active.

The first delivery, a chickpea, potato and kale curry, was made in the basement of Quality Wines, a central London restaurant, by chef Nick Bramham. DeliverAid has since received more than £49,000 ($59,900) in donations meaning more chefs could join in the effort. They deliver on average 1,000 meals a week to hospitals including Great Ormond Street, Royal Brompton Hospital in Chelsea and two care homes.

There's a £5 per meal budget with lots of chefs using their know-how to make them much cheaper than that. Many are also making dishes vegetarian or vegan, with little allergens, so they can be enjoyed by the most people as possible. Anna Tobias, previously head chef at London restaurant Rochelle Canteen, is one of the chefs cooking in her kitchen at home. The first meal she made for DeliverAid was aubergine pilaf with a herby lentil salad and spiced, grated carrot.

No child should go hungry because of coronavirus and Chefs in Schools is a London-based initiative providing pupils who’d normally receive free school meals with crates of food. It’s also delivering meals to the children of key workers.

Inside a crate, there’s rice, pasta, sauces, curries, soups, fruit, dessert and cereal to last five days. Many chefs from top restaurants including Ottolenghi, Nopi and Wahaca are involved in the programme, turning fresh produce supplied by charity The Felix Project into 9,000 meals a week.

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The charity is asking for donations big and small to keep delivering the food parcels. Food writer Issy Croker has also pulled together an e-book called Staying In in aid of Chefs in Schools' appeal. It contains 35 recipes including sourdough crumpets, carbonara, roast chicken with salsa verde and flourless chocolate cake, donated by chefs, bakers and authors including Gizzi Erskine, Ravneet Gill and Edd Kimber.