Family-owned brewery starts pop-up food bank for unemployed food-service workers

LIVERMORE, Calif. - At Eight Bridges Brewing in Livermore, the now-closed tasting room was put to a new use beginning Friday.

It has now become a pop-up food bank, strictly for struggling food service workers. That includes the many cooks, wait staff, dishwashers and others laid off or furloughed because of the Coronavirus.

"This is great. I can't express how wonderful this is," said one unemployed worker.

No industry has been hit harder by unemployment than those working in restaurants in California.

According to the latest figures from the state Employment Development Department, as of mid-March more than 67,000 California food service workers have lost their jobs. That number has likely tripled by now, according to some projections.

Family- owned Eight Bridges wanted to do something for some of those workers specifically.

"There's a lot of stuff in place for the greater community already. The restaurant workers who are feeling the hurt, we thought it was a way to give back to the community we are directly involved with," said brewery co-owner Justin Beardsley.

The craft brewery teamed up with the a major restaurant food supplier Performance Foodservice which donated 17,000 pounds of mostly non-perishables. 

We're faced with inventory we feel we need to move out. And we are facing a need in the community. It's worth it to us and makes a lot of sense," said Adam Holmes, head of Performance Foodservice Northern California.

The groceries includes, flour, sugar, juices, and pasta. All for people who helped provide meals to others for a living, now running short of it themselves

"The food service business is a big family. It runs deep. And we are here to support it," said Holmes.

The restaurant worker food bank at 332 Earhart Way in Livermore will be open every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

There could be a second one coming to the Bay Area in the near future.