Help Crema Bakery #FeedAustin

On March 15, the Sunday before spring break was to begin in Austin, Crema Bakery & Cafe  owners Jessica and Janessa Tomberlin were discussing their concern that local children weren’t going to have anything to eat for the week. Schools were closed, people were beginning to lose their jobs because of COVID-19, and grocery stores were starting to be overrun.

This issue hit close to home for us because our elementary-age daughter was out of school as well, and we knew the next few weeks and months would be a scary, uncertain time for many of the families we knew.

So we decided to post that we would offer a free sack lunch to anyone who wanted one - no questions asked. Within a day it had gone viral (for us) - thousands of likes and shares on social media. In the first week, we served almost 200 free lunches.

School was suspended indefinitely, and more and more of our neighbors were looking for help. So we decided to keep serving free lunches while also turning our cafe into a grocery store because we wanted to keep our employees working as long as possible.

Over the past six weeks, we have served more than 800 lunches to anyone who needed one - still no questions asked. We’ve also delivered meals to Ronald McDonald House, donated pastries to various causes and set up a table of imperfect produce and day-old items for anyone to take.

The need is continuing to grow, as more families find their budgets stretched thin. A gift to support our effort will not only help a family business survive this difficult time, but it will help us offer hope to our neighbors who need it most.

(photo credit: Angela Piazza/Austin American-Statesman)

#smallbusinessrelief #shopsmall #eatlocal