Surviving the Pandemic

When the Shelter in Place went into effect in Sonoma County in mid-March, Park Avenue Catering was faced with immediate event cancellations, postponements of weddings, corporate dinners and annual fundraisers. Our entire year’s business was vanishing before our eyes and we had no idea how we were going to manage through the next few months, never mind our entire event season.

Dealing with the Tubbs and Kincade fire seemed easy in comparison to this never-ending uncertainty. We essentially had to figure out how we could sustain our business with hopes of keeping our employees working (most of whom have been with the company for a decade or more) and hopefully fulfilling a need for our community.

We came up with a few new concepts realizing that there would be a lot of people needing food. Whether you are an essential worker, or someone that just lost their job, food is obviously a necessity, but it also makes people happy. At the outset, we reached out to our clients directly, via newsletters, and over social media.

One of our first initiatives, the “Sponsor a Meal” Program, where we connected local Sonoma County businesses and individual donors with non-profit organizations and essential workers that needed food. A big shout out to Moss Adams & Clover Stornetta amongst others that were able to help our community. These donations allowed us to provide meals for Women’s Recovery Services, Sloan House, Sutter Emergency Room, Corozan Healdsburg and for first responders through First Responders Resiliency, just to name a few. This program continues to this day and is something we are very proud to be able to offer during these difficult times.

From there, we moved on to start helping supplement the food needs of two local charities directly. Between May to July, Park Avenue has provided 21,455 meals for Catholic Charities and Ceres Community Project to augment their existing operations and help alleviate the food insecurities in our local communities.

Next up, we came up with a new offering of individually sealed, healthy chef bowls that were created with local hospitals & other essential workers in mind. Kaiser Permanente has particularly loved the freshness and creativity of these meals and have been ordering them weekly. Providing lunch for your team is a wonderful way to say “thank you” to your staff.

Once Sonoma County moved into Phase 2 of reopening, we pivoted again and created several new sets of menu options for our winery partners to provide food to their guests in order to be compliant and offer delicious alfresco meals and cheese & charcuterie boxes. We developed new individual boxed meal options to be delivered so you can celebrate your loved one’s milestone at home with your family.

Not much has changed since day one, however we remain hopeful that restrictions will be lifted for gatherings in the near future. We continue to follow all protocol in our kitchen on a daily basis, with a strict policy of daily temperature checks prior to entering the building, with most of our employees working remotely, with the exception of essential team members. Our staff are working in masks, and our kitchen and premises are sanitized daily. We have prepared COVID policies for our team, so that when we are able to cater events, we have guidelines in place to safely protect our staff and guests.

I have proudly worked for Park Avenue Catering for 20 years. I am honored to work for owners, Bruce Riezenman and Ari Weiswasser, and for a company that even during a pandemic figures out a way to provide high quality, delicious & healthy meals for people in need or who are essential workers and as one of the industries that have been hit the hardest, finds a way to support their employees.

To have the support of our clients and community to make this all happen is a silver lining!

Thank you to all of you who continue to order meals from us, or if you have not and would like to, please reach out to us. It’s a great way to say thank you to your employees by having lunch delivered or if you would like to pay it forward and support a local non-profit, or group that may need food, please reach out to us at sales@parkavecater.com.

-- Dianne Martin, Business Development and Events – Park Avenue Catering