Eateries help hospitals, shivering residents
Craig Lieberman was dealing with problems in his own home — a power outage, frozen pipes and the watery mess it all left behind — while juggling a special request at work: preparing 350 sandwiches to take to cold and hungry Houstonians warming up in Gallery Furniture stores.
Lieberman is the CEO of Antone’s Famous Po’Boys, and he’s used to stepping up when asked to help first responders, firefighters and hospital workers. He’s delivered thousands of sandwiches to staff at the Texas Medical Center — some to eat during their shifts and some to take home to their families during the coronavirus pandemic.
On Wednesday, Lieberman’s staff was busy making sandwiches in their restaurant on San Felipe when they lost power. They kept working, though, making sandwiches as the store got darker and darker.
Antone’s and Douglas Elliman Texas were partnering in the effort to feed cold Houstonians hunkered down on chairs, sofas and beds in Gallery Furniture showrooms, which Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale opened to the public as rolling blackouts left millions in the cold.
The Antone’s effort is one more bright spot in a week of cold misery, with Texans stepping up to help other Texans, even as they’re all shivering in the dark.
Kelsey Streufert, vice president of government relations and advocacy for the Texas Restaurant Association, got a call because hospitals were running out of food to feed patients, staff and visitors. Did the TRA know of any restaurants or restaurant suppliers that could help?
“I talked to my co-workers and we decided that if there’s a way to help, we would, and we knew that many restaurants across the state would want to help, too,” Streufert said. “We feed people and, by nature, restaurant operators tend to be doers. They don’t like being stuck in their houses; they want to jump in and do something productive.”
Within hours, Streufert and her colleagues at the TRA had set up a website where restaurants, suppliers and hospitals could connect. Just in the past few days, dozens of restaurants have helped 20 or more hospitals, delivering 500 to 1,000 meals at a time.
“It really was a grass-roots effort, and we’ve helped (hospitals in) Tyler, Austin, San Antonio and Houston,” she said. “We’re talking about moving it into the weekend and helping hospital workers who need to go home and take care of families at home. This has grown out of a very clear need.”
Icy roads have made deliveries difficult, but work at hospitals has to go on. Add to that power and water outages and, now, a boil-water order, and the scales are tipped.
“I’ve seen requests for raw lettuce, pizza, tacos. We’ve delivered hundreds of sporks,” Streufert said. “It really has been everything. The biggest need is to feed the doctors and nurses themselves.”
Trent Patterson, owner and director of operations at Dish Society, said his six restaurants have been delivering food to workers at Memorial Hermann hospitals during the pandemic and that he’s preparing a new effort in the next few days.
Some meal donations were from his staff and investors, but he also has an option with the restaurant’s online ordering that any customer can donate a meal or two as well.
“Several times in the past year we would package a meal for a family of four, packaged cold, that they could take home to feed their families. That might be something we can do in the coming days,” Patterson said while dealing with a power outage and ruptured pipes in his own home.
“On a day like today, we’re not making a dime. But we could open three locations with water and electricity and get our guys back to work,” he continued. “Our ethos is eat local, be social, and we take that to heart in a lot of things. We’re not just here to make money but to be an active part of the community — long term, that’s something we’ll be proud of.”