Added Touch Catering Set Out Free Food
Added Touch, closing for two weeks because of the coronavirus pandemic, set up tables of food for the community.
Added Touch Catering gave away all their perishables and some other food as they prepared to close up shop for two weeks in light of the coronavirus pandemic. As of Friday, March 20, they had completely stopped their operations. “Not because anyone is sick, but just as a precautionary measure,” said Clive Bank, vice president of the catering business. All of its events have been canceled.
Added Touch rolled up the garage door and set up tables in the back of their building, and all the food was gone in just three hours. “Everything we’ve got, our perishables are out of the building now,” Bank said.
“It was awesome,” said Erin Petre Lis, vice president of sales. Added Touch blasted the giveaway over social media and called officer Craig Manne of the
Sandy Springs Police Department to put the announcement out over the radio for members of the police force to pick up food. About 10 officers came by, Petre Lis said. Neighbors from the office complex also came, as well as Added Touch’s own staff.
In addition to perishable food, it told its staff that they could pick up any food they weren’t able to find in stores, such as bags of rice. “At least we could do that for our employees,” Petre Lis said.
Bank said, “We still are very optimistic; we are hopefully going to be doing Pesach orders.”
If the situation looks as though Added Touch won’t be able to reopen by that time, they’ll remain closed, Petre Lis said.
“All of our clients have been very understanding, … It’s a day-by-day thing,” Petre Lis said.
The decision to shut down was voluntary, as orders have accelerated during the
quarantine, she said. “Monday we had no orders on the books and by the end of the week we had about 60 pickup orders.”
She mentioned the lockdowns in places such as New York City and Israel as reasons why they made the decision to temporarily close. “As each day passed it seemed more and more serious. We felt like the responsible thing to do was voluntarily close,” she said. “I know we were
going to have more than 60 orders this week. We had planned to do that, but we said, you know, it’s just not worth it anymore.”
In the meantime, Petre Lis plans on isolating with her family as much as possible. They have enough food, so they won’t need to go into any stores, she said. “We’ll be going outdoors, but we’re not going to go anywhere we have to touch anything or come near anybody. I’m not going anywhere in public,” she said. She said other staff are driving home to their families out of state. “We’re going to take it two weeks at a time.”
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