As packages of chef-prepared food towered on tables, cars rolled up to Fair Haven Baptist Church s parking lot in Westland on Wednesday with pandemic-weary passengers seeking relief in the form of a free, nutritious meal.
, which recently raised nearly $95,000 to provide nearly 5,000 meals for people in need last week. About half were distributed Wednesday; the rest were given out on a first-come, first-served basis Thursday at Womack Temple in Inkster. We don t want to view this as charity, said Detroit Free Press/Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers Chef of the Year Phil Jones, one of the chef s participating in the distribution effort last week. This is us giving back to our community, sharing with our community, and really letting them understand that we care about them. So it s more than charity, and I think that s an important thing,
“It came at the perfect time because that was right when we shut down again and right as we were having to lay people off, said Mike Ransom, chef-owner of three Ima noodle restaurants in Detroit and Madison Heights. It allowed us to keep on twice as many hourly staff as we’d otherwise been able to, knowing that we had a little extra help to buffer our payroll for two or three periods.
Meals were delivered in the days between Christmas and New Year s, normally one of the busiest weeks of the year for the hospitality industry but not so in 2020 as dining rooms remained shuttered amid the protracted COVID-19 pandemic.