Chris Martin, community relations manager for Potomac Pizza, and Andy Goldstein, senior manager, stand by boxes of snacks to be donated by Potomac Pizza to workers at area hospitals. Photo contributed
Adam Greenberg of Potomac Pizza did not miss much time between seeing his restaurants shut down and opening his heart and food services to the community.
“Literally two days after we shut down the restaurants [Monday, March 16] I said, ‘Let’s do something,’” Greenberg recounted.
Greenberg is president of the Restaurant Zone Inc., which owns and operates four Potomac Pizza sites, two Bagels ‘n Grinds locations and the College Park Grill.
He was able to keep the pizza and bagel stores open for carry out and delivery, according to the guidelines for restaurants during the time of coronavirus, but not the Grill.
What Greenberg decided to do was what he naturally did best, share food with others who are helping care for those in need.
“The first thing we did was, we bought about $4,000 worth of snacks … cookies, chips, nonperishable [snacks],” he said
He connected with “just about all the hospitals, and nursing homes and police stations and fire department” and distributed the snacks so whoever took a break could grab something to eat, he said.
Greenberg said his friends and customers asked what they could do to help so he set up a Go Fund Me Page which raised about $15,000. That plus other donations came to $20,000 which Greenberg matched.
“This money was raised to help us help others,” Greenberg said.
In addition to snacks, Greenberg is delivering pizza and other food to different organizations weekly.
“We call them up and they order, and we deliver,” he said. “We also started another initiative: any front-line worker can call and order a large pizza. When they pick it up, they show an ID and it’s free.”
Greenberg said he is really thinking outside the box to keep his businesses going.
“The good thing is about 75 percent of our business is carryout and delivery, so we are prepared for this,” he said.
One recent innovation is a pop-up bagel “shop” held last Saturday.
The bagel shop, Bagels ‘n Grinds, is in College Park and, Greenberg said, Potomac residents are not going to drive all the way there for bagels – even though they are good. Greenberg put a notice on the Potomac Pizza Facebook page, took orders for bagels and brought them to Potomac.
He said he plans to do that this week for diners from the College Park Grill.
“Everybody is being careful,” he said. “All the restaurants are. We have to.”
Then he added, “Hopefully this will end soon.”
A thought we all share.