Big D.C. bar and events space Hook Hall has been paying restaurants to prepare meals for distribution to hospitality workers in need, and the nonprofit fund helping pay for those meals has received a $100,000 grant from the Rockefeller Fund.
Last month, Hook Hall partnered with the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington to collect donations through its existing nonprofit Educated Eats fund which has now, counting the Rockefeller Grant, collected more than $260,000 for the Hook Hall program.
Hook Hall applied for the grant with the D.C. Department of Human Services.
The Rockefeller grant is a huge boost, but most donations have not been large.
“Most of the dollars are small dollars. Thousands of people have donated $100 or less, everyday folks who are wanting to support workers in the industry,” Hook Hall owner Anna Valero told WTOP.
Restaurants can sign up to prepare meals for the Hook Hall distribution network online. It is open to any restaurant, not just RAMW members.
Those who get a slot are required to produce 100 to 250 nutritious meals containing a protein, a starch and a vegetable. The restaurants are paid $5 per meal.
While Valero didn’t have an exact number for how many restaurants have signed up for a slot, she said there has been no shortage of interest or in need of the meals they are making.
“Within a few hours of launching the program, all of the available dates we had filled up,” she said. “The only current setback that we have are enough dollars to meet both needs. We feel the best ways that we can serve workers in the industry is to make sure they have places to go back to once they reopen, which is one of the important reasons for us in activating their kitchens.”
Meals restaurants prepare need to be individually packaged and ready-to-serve and delivered to Hook Hall at 3400 Georgia Avenue NW by 2:30 p.m. on the date they have signed up for.
Hook Hall has also partnered with food distribution companies FoodPro and Sysco for care kits that include shelf stable foods and paper goods.
The Hook Hall Helps fund is also accepting online cash donations from individuals through RAMW’s Educated Eats.
“What’s really inspiring about the business community’s response is all of the different partners within the hospitality industry stepping up and folks providing what they can. There has just been such an outpouring of support but it’s not just in dollars. It’s people providing what they can,” Valero said.
