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Brand Update 2020

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Chef Cimino and crew of Cleveland Family Meal.<br />

Chefs Keep Cooking<br />

In what would have been his second week open,<br />

Cimino launched Cleveland Family Meal behind<br />

those doors, where he and his kitchen crew teamed<br />

up with other prominent chefs, including Certified<br />

Angus Beef ® brand partners Matt Spinner and Dave<br />

Kocab from Ushabu, to provide both cooked and<br />

raw foods for other restaurant workers who were<br />

suddenly unemployed. The project began with food in<br />

the pantry, but donations from purveyors and friends<br />

quickly rolled in to where it became a movement.<br />

operation didn’t fit the to-go order model,” said the<br />

Omaha Hospitality Hall of Famer. “I knew I had food I<br />

needed to use, and once we took care of staff, I decided<br />

to put it out on social media that I would provide meals<br />

for out-of-school children who needed help and any<br />

elderly whose health might be compromised.”<br />

Intended as a on-time solution to ensure the food<br />

went to good use, donations of both product and<br />

their talents kept the initiative alive.<br />

“We acquired a lot of proteins and other products<br />

from other chefs who didn’t want their food to go<br />

to waste,” Wheeler said. “So we started cooking and<br />

serving the homeless and out-of-work restaurant<br />

folks and, quite frankly, anybody who was in need of<br />

a meal in these times. I had Dan Watts from Sysco<br />

Lincoln smoking slabs of ribs, Blaine Hunter from<br />

Porky Butts BBQ smoked pork shoulders and Jacobson<br />

Fish donated 30 pounds of yellowfin tuna that I<br />

transformed into tuna sandwiches. A lot of really great<br />

people were involved.”<br />

In Miami, Fla., Chef Peter Vauthy from RED, The<br />

Steakhouse, Carla DiLorenzo from Los Tanitos<br />

and the crew at Okeechobee Steakhouse kept their<br />

kitchens running in part by cooking for first responders<br />

and healthcare workers.<br />

In Houston, Taste of Texas, Republic Grille and Sysco<br />

Houston all went to great lengths to feed hospital<br />

staff, police and fire personnel working round the<br />

clock. Texas icons Tom and Lisa Perini from Perini<br />

Ranch in Buffalo Gap donated thousands of dollars in<br />

steaks to their local food pantry to help with an evergrowing<br />

need.<br />

Foodservice Fights for<br />

Restaurant Survival<br />

Restaurants closing or adapting to lower-volume<br />

alternatives left foodservice distributors in a difficult<br />

place, much of their customer base diminished or<br />

gone without warning.<br />

Many could sell inventories to retailers facing heavy<br />

demand, but then the distributors looked for ways to<br />

keep their staff employed.<br />

Buckhead and its parent company Sysco helped<br />

restaurants across the country transform into “pop-up<br />

shops,” or corner stores with all the foodstuffs and<br />

paper products that quarantined people might need.<br />

North of the border, Gordon Food Services Canada<br />

launched a website in partnership with Restaurant<br />

Canada as a one-stop resource for restaurants trying<br />

to shift their business models and stay afloat.<br />

Independently owned meat shops also worked with<br />

restaurant customers to help their businesses during<br />

the transition to carryout and catering options.<br />

“Once it started hitting the fan, we needed to figure<br />

out how we were going to react,” said Edward Hall of<br />

Lone Star Meats in Austin. “We found some homes<br />

for product at retail, and then we figured out which of<br />

our restaurant partners were staying open. A lot of our<br />

restaurants have very loyal followings, so we started<br />

making pre-made care packages at different price levels<br />

for them to sell on.”<br />

Lone Star joined in the growing trend of creating directto-consumer<br />

websites that helped stabilize revenues and<br />

kept people on the payroll.<br />

“Fortunately, we jumped on pretty quick, got some<br />

systems in place and got everyone going,” said Addam<br />

Evans of Evans Meats in Birmingham, Ala., and<br />

donated a percentage of all direct-to-consumer revenue<br />

to independent restaurant partners affected by COVID-<br />

19. “There are a lot of people out there scrapping, and it<br />

kept some revenue coming in.”<br />

Evans initially started a curbside program for pickup<br />

at his company’s warehouse; as it evolved, he sent five<br />

trucks around the city to set up as more accessible,<br />

mobile curbside units.<br />

“Hospitality is what defines our industry, so<br />

that’s what we did,” said Cimino. “Be hospitable,<br />

show hospitality and cook. This has been what I<br />

do to occupy my time, and to focus on the good<br />

rather than dwelling on the bad. We’ll keep<br />

feeding people until we can’t anymore.”<br />

Charleston, S.C., Pitmaster Anthony DiBernardo<br />

from Swig & Swine committed thousands of dollars<br />

in local grocery-store gift cards to his out-of-work<br />

employees, while his business shifted to takeout<br />

only. Across the state, his friend Joe Urban, who<br />

oversees Nutrition Services at Greenville County<br />

Schools, continued to push out 25,000 meals per<br />

day for students in his school district, even though<br />

in-person classes had been suspended.<br />

In Omaha, local restaurant icon Glenn Wheeler of<br />

Spencer’s for Steaks and Chops found himself with<br />

a walk-in cooler filled with perishables. With the<br />

help of friends and other chefs in the city, Wheeler<br />

put together a robust plan to address growing needs<br />

in the community.<br />

“The order came down that Omaha restaurants had<br />

to be closed to no more than 10 people, and our<br />

“For many of the 77,000 students in our district,<br />

the meals they receive during school are the only<br />

substantive nutrition,” Urban said. It helped many<br />

families, not having to pay for meals when money is<br />

tight; for others, just knowing they could get food at<br />

all was life preserving.<br />

“We all know there is poverty in our communities, but<br />

most have no clue as to how severe that actually is for<br />

some families,” Urban said.<br />

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