Local restaurants have been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic and are looking for creative ways to help both their employees and the community. Plowboys Barbeque is responding in classic Kansas City fashion as part of Operation BBQ Relief.
CEO Stan Hays announced the organization is partnering with Plowboys Barbeque to pilot a Restaurant Relief Program. The program is designed to feed the community, keep restaurants from going out of business and help workers stay employed. Meals will be cooked and distributed from Plowboys Barbeque’s Overland Park restaurant at 75th and Metcalf.
Todd Johns, president of Plowboys
“Teaming up with a restaurant is a win-win for us,” Hays said. “Plowboys has the facilities, barbeque expertise and organizational experience to provide our goal of 2,500 meals a day. If this is successful in Kansas City, and we have no reason to think otherwise, we will roll out the Restaurant Relief Program in other key markets throughout the country.”
Recent reports indicate that last week, a record 68,000-plus workers applied for unemployment in Kansas and Missouri — a strong and sobering indicator that there are people who need food assistance or a way to stretch their food budget. The restaurant industry has been especially affected by COVID-19 because a loss of business that happened, in some instances, overnight.
According to a recent story in Restaurant Business, the National Restaurant Association — the restaurant industry’s trade group — surveyed 4,000 restaurant operators and owners across the country. The statistics lay bare how the pandemic is ravaging the hospitality industry: 3 percent of those surveyed have permanently closed their restaurants and another 11 percent said they could permanently close within the next 30 days.
“The Restaurant Relief Program will help restaurants, like Plowboys Barbeque, negatively affected by the pandemic,” Hays said.
“Plowboys is thrilled to be bringing back six employees to help us staff this operation,” said Todd Johns, president of Plowboys. “This could be the missing link to help sustain us and obviously to serve the community in a time of unprecedented need. The barbeque community knows how to work as a team, and Stan’s organization has tremendous knowledge of navigating complex disaster relief efforts.
“This opportunity to keep cooking is a small answer to big prayers. It gives us hope.”
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice