Caboose Brewing Co. Continues Food Boxes For Families Started During Pandemic

VIENNA, VA — When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, restaurants like Caboose Brewing Co. were forced to shut down dining rooms. That had implications for business, prompting owner Jennifer McLaughlin to consolidate her staff.

Despite the new challenges her business faced, McLaughlin also recognized and addressed another emerging concern: a food shortage affecting families.

One of McLaughlin's friends, a teacher's aide at James Madison High School, reached out to say there were families in need of groceries.

"Food banks had long lines and no fresh food. Schools hadn’t yet figured out how to feed children in need," McLaughlin said. "Schools and churches were checking in with families and a friend of mine, who is a teacher at a local school, asked if we could help. Caboose had access to fresh food and employees that needed something purposeful to do."

Caboose Brewing Co., which includes Caboose Tavern in Vienna and Caboose Commons in Fairfax, started providing grocery boxes with milk, eggs, meat and different assortments of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Once word spread that Caboose was willing to help, other schools and churches started to get in touch. Families in need of groceries were identified by coordinators, typically individual staff members at schools, churches or organizations such as She Believes in Me. In the early pandemic, Caboose also provided about 100 lunches per week to nurses at Inova.

Initially, Caboose Tavern in Vienna had become a food storage facility of sorts, as pandemic-related changes consolidated staff at the Caboose Commons location. When Caboose received Paycheck Protection Program funding to pay employees, McLaughlin was able to bring back more employees, who assisted with the grocery packing efforts at Caboose Commons. She said it was "meaningful" for employees to have that type of work to do during that stage of the pandemic.

At one point, Caboose was providing over 100 grocery boxes per week and receiving donations to support food packing efforts from the Vienna VA Foodies group. The business received one of the town's Carole Wolf and Community Service Awards for its effort.

Today, Caboose is still providing grocery boxes to 17 families in need through four coordinators in schools and nonprofit She Believes in Me.

"We are still doing it two years later," McLaughlin told Patch. "As long as they ask for it, we will keep doing it."

McLaughlin says the pandemic is still going on from a business perspective, with challenges such as increasing business costs, inflation affecting customers and declining revenue. She recently provided a $1-per-hour raise for employees to help with inflation.

Nevertheless, she is committed to continuing the grocery boxes as long as families need them.

"If we need to pinch pennies, that's fine," McLaughlin said.

Customers can provide contributions to the grocery boxes effort through Caboose's website.

Patch has partnered with Feeding America to help raise awareness on behalf of the millions of Americans facing hunger. Feeding America, which supports 200 food banks across the country, estimates that one in five people turned to charitable food assistance for help in the wake of the pandemic. This is a Patch social good project; Feeding America receives 100 percent of donations. Find out how you can donate in your community or find a food pantry near you.