Ups and Downs

What a whirlwind the past couple weeks have been! We’ve had plenty of ups and downs, but we are still here and still working, so we are, of course, incredibly grateful. Here’s a little update on our happenings since my last post.

A week ago, Wednesday, we came into the kitchen just like any other day and started prepping for a pretty big day of orders. There was some discussion from other trucks parked at our commissary that trucks had been unplugged overnight. This is both strange and problematic. All of us keep quite a bit of product on our trucks, so unplugging the trucks would result in losing everything in the fridge and freezers as that product is without refrigeration when trucks are unplugged. This also led to the question, how did the trucks become unplugged? Unfortunately, after further investigation, it was discovered that not only were the trucks unplugged, the power cords that were once keeping them supplied to power had actually been stolen.

We rushed out to see if we, too, had been victims. Indeed, we were. These are not your everyday extension cords. These are 30-50 amp cords that are relatively expensive to replace. The power cord we use cannot be purchased in a store. It must be parted together and assembled by an electrician. Between our 50 amp power cord, our 30 amp extension cord, and our adapter, we were out about $1200 in the theft. Add in our product lost, our total loss was about $2k. We do have insurance for this type of thing, but our deductible is $1000. During the height of our busy season it would be a strain to come up with $1000. Obviously, this is not the most ideal time for something like this to happen. Yes, there is security camera footage of the incident. No, it won’t help catch the thieves. They came in on foot dressed in dark clothing and never got close enough to the cameras to be of any help identifying them.

Fortunately, many of our regular customers have gone out of their way to support us by purchasing family meals and encouraging their friends, family and neighbors to do the same. Even more of you are sharing and reacting to our statuses on Facebook. Our first post about our family meals was seen over 10,000 times just from folds sharing it. That is incredible! We thank you all who have been helping us in any way that you can.

Yesterday, we made the difficult decision to park the trucks until this shut-down is over. We have been trying to keep them running to give our staff hours, but it is just not working. Twice in the last week our sales have been less than $50 for a shift. It costs us about $250 in food, labor, and fuel to send the trucks out. We spoke with our staff and decided as a group that it was best to shut the trucks down. The staff is  supportive of what Jason and I are doing with the family meals and expressed that their biggest concern was that our company survive the next few months so that they have a job to come back to. They also expressed that they didn’t feel it was worth taking the trucks out anymore when balanced against the risk of the Covid-19 spread. We love our employees and appreciate their consideration for our businesses as well as their well-being. It was a very difficult decision, but it was the right one for us at this time.

So, it’s full steam ahead for family meals! If this continues to grow, we may be able to bring our employees back sooner than planned. That would be really incredible!

Speaking of family meals, Easter is coming, and if you’re anything like me, you look forward to Easter Brunch. Unfortunately, this year we are all on our own and cannot rely on the lovely spread so many restaurants and hotels provide each year (seriously, my favorite.) To help, J Street has put together a really awesome meal that comes to you ready to heat and eat. One hour in the oven on Easter Sunday and you and your family are ready to eat. The $65 meal feeds 6 (or fewer with amazing leftovers) and must be pre-ordered. It can then be scheduled for pick-up or delivery on the afternoon of Saturday April 11th.

Additionally, today, Denver’s Channel 7 came out and did a really lovely piece about how we have adapted to stay in business during the shut-down. From that we have received an uptick in interest in our services. Just Thursday night we received an additional 5 family meal orders for Friday. We also saw a renewed interest in donations for our hospital staff meals. In the 6 hours since the story aired, we received enough donations to feed an additional 100 staff.

So far, we have gathered enough donations to serve about 275 workers. We have scheduled our first drop for 100 paramedics at Denver Health on Saturday night. Our second drop for 75 workers will happen next Thursday at Children’s hospital in Aurora. The meals donated today and in the next week and a half will be sent to deserving staff at UC Health Monday April 13th. Keep an eye on our social pages for more information about those and videos of those deliveries.

So, like I said, it’s ups and downs. I suspect that’s how it is for a lot of you out there. We appreciate your support, whatever form that is.

Stay strong out there. Stay home. Flatten the curve. And please, let us know how we can help you in any way.