Note: This post is part of our B ON FIRE campaign to highlight brands and individuals in Northern Colorado doing awesomely creative and generous things during the pandemic. Follow us on social media using the hashtag #BonFireNoCo to get inspired and to share how you’ve seen companies and individuals – including yourself – B ON FIRE.
When Steve Taylor made the decision to temporarily close The Moot House – a beloved midtown Fort Collins restaurant styled after an English pub – he knew he had another decision to make.
What to do with an empty restaurant and laid-off staff and a walk-in cooler full of food?
It’s a question that restaurant owners across the country have asked in the wake of state-ordered shutdowns and stay-at-home directives to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. It’s a question weighed down by uncertainty – when will the economy be “back in business”? when will things go back to “normal”? – and the balance between keeping employees safe and experimenting with pick-up and delivery operations.
In the end, Taylor did what he does best: he kept making food.
“We opened up the Moot House and started making about 100 meals a day for our staff and former staff,” Taylor said.
But then a spark of an idea began to flicker. It quickly grew into a big, daring plan. Why not use their food, re-hire some of his staff, and donate meals to families at risk of food insecurities during the COVID-19 pandemic?
1,000 meals a day for those in need
With help from the Bohemian Foundation, The Moot House launched Feeding Our Community, a pilot “meal program” that provides free meals to at-risk households and healthcare workers. As of this posting, Feeding Our Community is providing 1,000 meals a day – all from the Moot House kitchen. Taylor said that The Moot House and the Bohemian Foundation are working on bringing in other restaurants to keep pace with additional meal donations.
The program also has enabled Taylor to bring on some of his staff, providing jobs and income in an industry that has been rocked by shelter-at-home orders. Additionally, the Bohemian Foundation are in the process of creating a public-facing page where donations to the program can be made.
Here’s how Feeding Our Community works. Individuals or families fill out a meal qualification survey, which Taylor and his team review. Upon approval, the recipients choose their meals from a limited menu and place their orders through a dedicated online portal. Odell Brewing and New Belgium Brewing have jumped in to help, as well, and they provide the delivery for all of the program’s meals.
B ON FIRE and gather ‘round the table
Our B ON FIRE “series” is about highlighting brands and individuals in Northern Colorado who are stepping out in creative, generous ways during these trying and uncertain times. We wanted to start with The Moot House’s Feeding Our Community program not just because all of us here love their food.
Well, maybe that is why. Because in anxious, abnormal times, when lives have been lost and livelihoods sit like unused walk-in coolers full of food, we need things like hand-crafted meals to keep us going. To fuel our creative fires. To offer a bit of comfort and normalcy. To remind us that beauty still matters, even in a pandemic.
This is what Taylor and The Moot House have done. They’ve offered more than meals to those in need. They’ve offered a timely reminder that the best things happen when we gather around the table.
