Just three days after closing the dining room of his Brooklyn, N.Y., restaurant, Olmsted, last March, Chef Greg Baxtrom was inspired: Why not turn the shuttered restaurant into a feeding center? Baxtrom gave away lunches for hospital workers and offered free food for laid-off restaurant workers.
Grants and donations allowed him to give away hundreds of meals. He sold off the restaurant’s pantry of sauces, produce, wine and more for revenue to keep the operation going.
“We started out trying to produce food for unemployed restaurant workers, and within hours of that being open it became just anyone that needs it,” Baxtrom told Eater last summer. “We try to get anything we can get our hands on that someone might need.”