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Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the community is coming together to get through it by staying home, making masks and staying connected through technology. One way the community has come together during this time is through food as local restaurants have been donating food to healthcare workers and those in need.
“That’s something the owner really wanted to [do],” Brian Launius, the special events manager at Il Calabrese, says. “He wants us to find someone who need food every day and take it to them.”
Il Calabrese has donated food to Texas Health Southlake, Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Grapevine, the Southlake Police and Fire Departments and some nursing homes.
And through their food donations, it’s not just the recipients that are benefiting.
“It was a good opportunity for us to actually have a little more staff come in — kitchen staff, front-of-house staff — just give everybody something to do to keep busy so everybody could stay working,” Brian says.
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Most of the food Il Calabrese donates is pizza and pasta dishes.
“Everybody is super grateful,” Brian says. “Everybody is just beyond grateful. Everybody likes a good meal [and] Italian food is comfort food.”
And Il Calabrese has no plans of stopping any time soon.
“Until the need is over, we’ll probably be getting somewhere, someone just about everyday,” Brian says. “
Il Calabrese isn’t the only local restaurant helping those in need right now. Great Harvest Bread Co. has also been donating food.
“During the week of the 30th, we did 650 meals. Last week we did 750,” Jon McCabe, one of the owners of Great Harvest Bread Co., says. “This week we are doing 875 and will continue this as long as there is a need in these COVID challenged times.”
Working with Just Because, a nonprofit organization out of Farmers Branch, Great Harvest Bread Co. has made food to be sent to healthcare workers, seniors and the homeless.
“We have the means[and] capability to do this and make a direct impact for those who are not as fortunate, which allows us to “lean in” to one of our mission statements: to give generously,” Jon says.
Great Harvest Bread Co. is also open to helping the community in general.
“We would also emphasize that if someone knows of those in need, they are welcome to stop by and pick up free bread (or anything else we can provide) for them or they can call us and we’ll work with them to help,” Jon says.
While Great Harvest Bread Co. provides the food, Just Because works to distribute it.
“It's hard to put into words our gratitude for this opportunity with Great Harvest Bread Co. The smiles, the sense of relief for a meal, the thanks are happening, but with Jon and I being behind the curtain (if you will), we feel them from the stories we hear from those that deliver,” Krissy Sarine-Van Brunt, the founder of Just Because, says. “The beauty also, when you give from the most genuine part of your heart, there is fullness which creates the forward motion to keep serving.”
