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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