WELLFLEET, Mass. — When the pandemic hit, a restaurant on the lower Cape, like many others, decided to offer delivery.
However, the Fox & Crow decided they were going to drastically change how they do business by offering their meals for free.
Owner Trudy Vermehren said, “It’s emotional, it really is.”
She explained that the level of gratitude has been overwhelming.
She told Boston 25 News, “It’s hard to believe how many people have just been so grateful.”
At first, she did choose to close but then a friend gave her the idea to open but only to make meals to donate.
Bruce Bierhans said, “We raised $11,000 in the first day.”
That money was mostly raised through Facebook at first but then people also began mailing donations.
They called their effort the “Common Table” and gathered volunteers then started delivering meals.
Vermehren said “Sometimes I don’t think it’s… I think well is it really hitting people in need? And sometimes it’s just that they need a break sometimes it’s that they really are food insecure.”
Vermehren realized that on top of children not getting their meals at school, may local food assistance groups aren’t offering what they used to.
'We have a couple kitchens in town and all of those closed down and older people weren’t getting meals, people in need that are used to getting meals weren’t getting meals," she said.
Since March 17, they have served about 3,600 free meals.
Bierhans explained, “We didn’t want to do this to make money, we wanted to do this to provide a service to people that need food.”
Vermehren is now opening the Fox & Crow during the evening for take-out but will continue to operate the Common Table.
She said, “We know that it’s hitting people in a very important way, it’s providing something emotional and it really proves that they are in a community.”
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