With the current global situation, we could all certainly use an extra dose of positivity in our lives. When we turn off the news, we get to see a lot of the beauty within our own communities as individuals and businesses alike come together to support one another.
We’re seeing a lot of this “giving back” mentality in the catering industry and it’s instilling hope and inspiration for a future of respect, collaboration, and partnership. Here are several catering companies that are pitching in to help wherever possible.
Lon Lane’s Inspired Occasions
“Inspired Occasions is teaming up with all-girls’ not-for-profit school in Kansas City to deliver meals on Mondays,” explains founder Lon Lane of Lon Lane’s Inspired Occasions. “The school doesn’t have a delivery mechanism and the bus transportation company wanted to charge 80 percent of the daily contract fee. Inspired Occasions doesn’t deliver the at-home program on Mondays, so the owner, Jaime Steinman, is working with the school to utilize our own vans and drivers at a fraction of the cost.”
The Madison in Cleveland
The owner of The Madison in Cleveland, Chris Jesperson, donated the space to the local hospital group to store supplies throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Marcia Selden Catering & Event Planning
The team at Marcia Selden Catering & Event Planning has been instrumental in providing food to healthcare workers in Connecticut. This local effort turned into a GoFundMe page called “Food for the Front Lines,” which has raised over $60,000 to provide food delivery services to emergency rooms and intensive care units all across Connecticut.
Robin Selden elaborates: “What’s incredible here is that not only is this making the days of our hospital’s nurses and doctors, but it is also helping to support the local restaurants and caterers that are trying desperately to keep their doors open and people employed. We have been sharing our journey through social media and what’s incredible is that our clients are now sending us checks so that they can earmark the deliveries to specific hospital systems that they’d like is to deliver to through Food for the Front Lines.”
Footers Catering
“We are feeding our furloughed team members each week with our program called Hotel Pans for Hope,” shares Anthony Lambatos of Footers Catering. “Culture is so important to us and it was heartbreaking to have to furlough our hourly team members, so we created this program for them. Each week, they bring back their hotel pan and we fill it with meals for the week for them and their families.”
Catering by Michaels
In response to COVID-19, Catering by Michaels stepped up early to provide food at no cost to their employees and their families. The rest is being donated to help feed their community, including delivering fresh food to local hospitals and preparing hundreds of meals for the homeless community.
M Culinary Concepts
In addition to implementing strict health guidelines in the workplace, M Culinary Concepts is participating in a local Weekly Brown Bag Program to keep senior citizens in Scottsdale fed throughout the pandemic. They also worked with the Arizona Science Center to provide a virtual event to teach families how to make ceviche and how the science behind it works.
Elegant Affairs
With events postponed, the Elegant Affairs team pivoted to grocery and meal delivery services to provide healthy food to the community while promoting social distancing. Their “Stay-at-Home Market” has helped to keep people out of grocery stores, while ensuring they still get to have delicious ingredients and meals.
Giving back to one’s community is always a meaningful gesture, but it is especially impactful in crisis situations when there is so much need to fill. Let’s all be sure to remain kind and thoughtful of one another throughout this pandemic and we’ll be stronger collectively on the other side.
