Courtesy St. Louis Community Foundation
Joe Jovanovich, co-owner of The Pat Connolly Tavern, delivering meals
In late 2020, Liz Kniep Engelsmann, co-owner of fine wine and spirits distributor Pinnacle Imports, had an idea to help both St. Louis hospitality professionals and area agencies working to address food insecurity. By setting up a system to channel donations to restaurants throughout the community, money that organizations and individuals would typically spend on holiday parties during non-pandemic times, she would be helping to keep restaurant staff working by feeding the hungry.
Courtesy St. Louis Community Foundation
Just two months later, that idea, Community Carry Out, is a roaring success, providing a lifeline for the St. Louis restaurant industry and food agencies struggling to meet the challenges of COVID-19.
Since Thanksgiving, the program has raised more than $311,000 that has been distributed to 43 local restaurants; those restaurants have, in turn, provided 15,000 meals to 18 area agencies. In fact, Community Carry Out has been such a success, the program has been extended beyond its March 30 deadline and will continue to award grants to restaurants as long as the money keeps coming in.
“We’ve gotten really generous notes from restaurateurs who indicate that the money has been game-changing,” Kniep Engelsmann says. “They’ve been so grateful to have meaningful work. There is a generosity inherent in that industry, and they’ve been able to use their staff to do something meaningful in the community. This has been an opportunity to get back to that sensibility of service.”
The food agencies that benefit from the program have also embraced the initiative, which works in partnership with the St. Louis Community Foundation. According to Bob Marshak, who is on the program’s advisory board and helps connect restaurants with agencies, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
Courtesy St. Louis Community Foundation
Fried chicken from The Pat Connolly Tavern
Courtesy St. Louis Community Foundation
Meals from Ces & Judy's Catering
“People have been ecstatic,” Marshak says. “These food pantries and organizations provide food, but this is restaurant food and done with the goals of providing healthy food that is locally sourced to maximum extent. I believe we’ve met those goals. I’ve talked to some organizations who tell me that their clients were delighted, because this was not just something cobbled together but a meal produced by a local restaurant. People just loved them.”
Joy Christensen, owner of The Fountain on Locust and one of the Community Carry Out grant recipients, has been heartened by the feedback that she’s received. “As a restaurant trying to deal with just the next day for going on a year, we instantly saw this program as ingenious and were so grateful to be able to participate,” Christensen explained in a note to Kniep Englesmann that thanked her for the opportunity. “We delivered 250 meals to City of Hope, and the entire process was so seamless, it was actually stress-free and enjoyable. Of course, we still worried about what would happen when the food got out of our hands. For dessert, we provided requested ice cream and hot fudge, so we worried about how that would go once out of our hands but heard back that they loved it and couldn’t have been happier and want to do it again sometime! This was such a blessing for everyone involved.”
Courtesy St. Louis Community Foundation
Meals from Marcella's Mia Sorella at Carver House
Both Kniep Englesmann and Marshak have been thrilled with how seamless the program has gone so far. With the infrastructure built, they say the challenge now is to keep the momentum and fundraising going for as long as possible. They recently received a donation of $100,000 from Ameren, which has become a corporate sponsor of the program, but they emphasize that they are also grateful for every individual donation of $15 that has gone toward making the program a success. They hope to continue getting the word out about their efforts, including a feature on St. Louis PBS affiliate show Living St. Louis, which airs tonight at 7 p.m. In raising awareness, they hope that more people will contribute to meet vital needs in the community.
“This has really taught me the value of grassroots organizing,” Kniep Engelsmann says. “A small group of people can work so hard to do this amazing work for the community. This is a little piece of the local economy. If you take money that would have been going to these businesses and give them that money to do the work they would have been doing, it stimulates their people and benefits the community.”
Donations to Community Carryout can be made through the St. Louis Community Foundation’s website. Checks can also be mailed to the St Louis Community Foundation, 2 Oak Knoll Park, Clayton, MO 63105. (Be sure to note “Community Carry Out” in the memo.) The program is also accepting PayPal and credit card donations online.
