Dear, dear Feastlings,
I took 140 meals to TMC today, and it was like a well-oiled machine over there- scores of people in yellow vests directing traffic, sticking needles in arms, and humming along like ants or bees or whatever communal creature you can think of, everyone with their own task. All was right with the world as we buzzed along toward normalcy. The Old Normalcy.
By the time I got back to Feast, though, we were right back into the New Normalcy: the bank sent me the fourth in a series of emails telling me that they need more information for our PPP loan, but not telling me everything I needed to know in order to give it to them. Last week, it was a report I’d submitted already, but which didn’t have a signature. Then it was that I’d signed it, but on the last page, and it needed to be signed on the first page, and dated, and the subsequent pages initialed. Today there’s a new report I need to send, but they only offered a vague description of it, and didn’t tell me whether it should be signed, or initialed, or dated, on the first page or the last. I’d really love to go back to worrying about whether table 13 has been cleared of appetizers so we can bring their entrees.
Then I got the news that the deliveries we were planning on taking to Banner vaccine locations tomorrow needed to be the opposite of what we’ve spent three days preparing, since they don’t have a means of heating their food. So now comes a scramble to donate the food to someone who can use it in the cryovac bags in which we’ve packed it. Then we need to figure out a meal that will serve well at room temperature. So I guess I know what I’m up to this afternoon. The hamster wheel in my head is going full tilt today. I’m also just finishing up the post about this Saturday’s wine tasting, at which I won’t be spitting a drop if the rest of the week continues this way. Here’s the information on that tasting:
I’ll also be writing up heating instructions for the Valentine’s Day menu, which I should note here you only have another day and a half to order, so if you’re on the fence, tomorrow is your deadline, so put your decision-making cap on. Here’s that menu:
I’ll also note that you’ll learn soon where the meals we were planning on sending out tomorrow will go, but that will depend entirely on this afternoon’s series of phone calls and emails in which I’ll be engaged this afternoon while I hope to hear from my bank with the list of what I still need to format appropriately for them. What this means, though, is that we’ve rescheduled the delivery to Banner Volunteers, which means we’ll need to drum up a little more support. So if you want to donate meals to some other frontliners yet to be determined, or to the Banner volunteers whose meals are a little further along the calendar, please, by all means, feel free to pick up the phone. the number is 326-9363, and here’s what our original intention was:
In the meantime, mercifully, there’s a crew here who’s working hard not only to produce the meals we’re donating, but to execute our regular menu for you, every day but Monday, and we’re delighted to offer you what food and drink you’d like:
https://www.eatatfeast.com/dining/menus/lunch-dinner/
So I’m off now to find a home for a couple hundred meals, and I know some of you well-meaning folk will have suggestions for me, but please know that the logistics of it are often more complex than they seem on the surface, so don’t be disappointed if the meals end up someplace you didn’t suggest. We’re grateful for your feedback, and for your contributions. and for your patronage. But our hamsters are really, really tired today.
Love,
The staff of Feast, and our respective hamsters