Photo by Deb Gau Christian Becker met with North Memorial Ambulance workers, including Jen Schmidt and Hailiy Okins, as he and his family delivered meals at the Marshall Area YMCA on Friday. A grant from State Farm, and local restaurants, helped provide a total of 80 meals for essential workers in the Marshall area

MARSHALL — Even in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are a lot of people who have been going to work every day to serve the community. And as a way to say “thank you,” local businesspeople teamed up to treat essential workers and first responders to a meal on Friday.

State Farm agent Christian Becker and his family delivered a total of 80 meals from local restaurants to law enforcement, medical workers, and emergency child care providers in the Marshall area.

“It’s just to show appreciation,” for all that responders are doing, Becker said Friday. When he learned that State Farm Good Neighbor Community Funding was available for frontline workers, Becker said, he wanted to apply to do something for area responders.

Christian, his wife Lisa and their son Carson visited the Lyon County Law Enforcement Center, the Marshall Area YMCA, North Memorial Ambulance, Avera Marshall Medical Center, and Minneota emergency responders with food from local restaurants. Mainstay Cafe, the Chicken Connection, Varsity Pub and Extra Innings, and City Hall Bar and Grill in Minneota all prepared food for emergency responders — and they even contributed additional food and soft drinks, Becker said. It was a way to show that everyone is in this together.