The Important Things
As you might know, I’m a Chef and Restaurateur. Back in March, of 2020, everything changed in our industry. Leading up to the mandated shutdown, we started to prepare for the inevitable; our dining rooms closing. Even In the best of times, margins in our industry aren’t that great. We were just coming out of the winter doldrums and looking forward to a busy summer with weddings and events on the books. We had opened an ambitious and expensive new restaurant downtown after 6 months of work. In its first few weeks it was doing well. All of that abruptly disappeared on March 19th when we got the word to shut down completely except for carry out and delivery.
Immediately our thoughts went to preserving jobs for as many employees as possible, sustaining operations with severely restricted cash flow, and minimizing our expenses as much as possible. We also turned to brand new family meals as a way to take care of people at home instead of individual dishes. Our new Downtown Madison restaurant, Dark Horse, immediately re-tooled almost overnight to switch from finer dining to take out family meals. We started delivering via Eat Street, eventually hiring our own drivers. I remember many sleepless nights stressing about finances and taking care of our team. Failure was simply not an option. It just couldn’t happen. We had been through explosions, floods, and we’d do our best to meet this new challenge head on. Also discussed in those first few days in our meetings was how we could help our community.
Initially, we received a large carry out and delivery bump. Our customers were supporting us! What we realized quickly was that we couldn’t keep up. Since no one was out doing anything, everyone wanted to eat at the exact same time. The challenge became how to suddenly accommodate a crazy dinner rush that lasted for maybe two hours and died completely off at 7:30-8. In Sun Prairie, we borrowed a high speed pizza oven from one of our vendors, and temporarily installed it right in the middle of our dining room. It became our Covid War Room so to speak. We could now better handle that abbreviated rush with more capacity.
In the early days, we were feeding the national guard medical mission twice daily, until their federal contract came on line and they had to switch to an approved institutional vendor. (We heard they were sad to see us go!). We also started sending meals to medical staff at area hospitals and clinics. We felt strongly about feeding front line workers who were running ragged. In the beginning of April I started asking our customers on social media if they knew of individuals or families who were impacted particularly hard by the pandemic who could use some relief in the form of food deliveries from us, on us. When the emailed responses started coming in, the stories were heartbreaking. So In between regular orders we went to work spreading a bit of good will to people who really needed it.
Also in April, I was asked to prepare a meal for Sunshine Supper (Sunshine Place) In Sun Prairie. Before COVID, volunteers had been providing weekly hot and nutritious community meals. Now that we were embracing the new world of extreme heath risks, distance and masks, they had switched to a drive through format. What’s great about these folks is that there are no questions asked. If you are hungry, come and eat. It’s a great model to combat food insecurity while minimizing any perceived social stigma that some folks feel when seeking assistance. After the first, we did a second and filled in for a local church. This led to a weekly slot every Wednesday. I loved that we were feeding the community while keeping our people working, and making sure that our family farmers still had an outlet for their meat, vegetables, dairy, eggs, etc. So here we are almost a year and somewhere around 15,000 community meals later. I’ve lost count as it has never been about the numbers. It’s all about taking care of people and speaks to our core mission of increasing food access, strengthening our local food infrastructure and combating food insecurity.
That number to me is pretty staggering. 15,000. And we are still going.
Most of my team will tell you, sometimes in exasperation, that I just simply can’t say no. When there’s a need in the community, or someone or something needs help, I’m often the first in line to offer assistance. It is my privilege to serve. And I’m proud to have built a company culture that supports those efforts. Toward the end of Summer, the Sun Prairie Rotary presented me with the 2020 Service Above Self Award for our efforts in combating hunger and the leadership exhibited during the aftermath of the tragic gas explosion that destroyed a significant part of downtown. (But that’s another story.) The Award has my name on it. But I can’t emphasize enough the collaborative effort and shared ethics of my team that made it possible.
Vote April 6th. I’m looking forward to working with you to help Move Monona Forward.
——Patrick
